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[No.   3.] 

Weymouth  Histoeical  Society. 


WESSAGUSSET  AND  WEYMOUTH, 

AN  HISTORICAL   ADDRESS   BY 

CHARLES  EEANCIS  ADAMS,  JR., 

DELIVERED  AT  WEYMOUTH,  JULY  4,  1874,  ON  THE  OCCASION  OF  THE 

CBLEBKATION  OF   THE  TWO    HUNDRED  AND  FIFTIETH 

ANNIVERSARY  OF  THE  PERMANENT 

SETTLEMENT  OF  THE  TOWN. 


WEYMOUTH  IN  ITS  FIEST  TWENTY  YEARS, 

A  PAPER  READ  BEFORE  THE  SOCIETY  BY 

GILBERT  NASH, 

NOYEMBER   1,  1882. 


WEYMOUTH  THIRTY  YEARS  LATER, 

A   PAPER   READ   BY 

CHARLES  FRANCIS  ADAMS, 

BEFORE   THE 

WEYMOUTH    HISTORICAL    SOCIETY, 
SEPTEMBER    23,   1904. 


PUBLISHED    BY 

THE   WEYMOUTH   HISTOEICAL  SOCIETY. 
1905. 


'*^.*., 


'*M!V^J, 


-,  «*    i(^",ff 


^  ;?<*.  -    '"^"^ea^Si 


,  im 


'"■•'•'It,  .5,^ 


f%.#i 


CONTENTS. 


Wessagusset  and  "Weymouth  . 
Weymouth's  First  Twenty  Yeaes  . 
Weymouth  Thirty  Years  Later 
Index    ....... 

Appendix      .         .         . 


5 

87 

114 

157 
164 


HISTORICAL  ADDRESS 


BY 


CHARLES  FRANCIS  ADAMS,  Jk., 

JULY    4,    1874. 


Full  in  sight  of  the  spot  where  we  are  now  gath- 
ered,—  almost  at  the  foot  of  Iving-Oak  Hill, —  stands 
that  portion  of  the  ancient  toAvn  of  Weymouth,  known 
from  time  immemorial  as  the  village  of  Old  Spain. 
When  or  why  it  was  first  so  called  is  Avholly  unknown, 
—  scarcely  a  tradition  even  remains  to  suggest  to  us 
an  origin  of  the  name.  I^one  the  less  Old  Spain  well 
deserved  a  portion  at  least  of  that  familiar  title,  for, 
next  to  the  town  of  Plymouth,  it  is  the  oldest  settle- 
ment in  Massachusetts.  And  when  we  speak  of  the 
oldest  settlements  in  Massachusetts,  we  speak  of  com- 
munities which  may  faii'ly  lay  claim  to  a  very  respecta- 
ble degree  of  antiquity;  not  of  the  greatest,  it  is  true, 
for  all  antiquity  is  relative,  and  that  of  America 
scarcely  deserves  the  name  by  the  side  of  what  En- 
gland has  to  show;  but  what  is  the  antiquity  of 
England  compared  with  that  of  Kome?  —  and  Rome, 
again,  seems  young  and  crude  when  we  speak  of 
Greece ;  while  even  those  who  fought  upon  the  ringing 
plains  of  windy  Troy  are  but  as  prattling  children  in 
presence  of  the  hoary  age  of  the  Pharaohs.  The  set- 
tlement of  Old  Spain  and  of  Weymouth  is,  therefore, 


TWO   HUNDRED   AND   FIFTIETH 


ancient  only  as  things  American  are  ancient;  but  still 
two  hundred  and  fifty  years  of  time  carry  us  back  to 
events  and  men  which  seem  sufficiently  remote.  When 
the  first  European  made  his  home  in  Old  Spain, — when 
the  earliest  rude  hut  was  framed  on  yonder  north  shore 
of  Phillips  Creek, —  the  modern  world  in  which  we  live 
was  just  assuming  shape.  Few  now  realize  how  little 
of  that  which  makes  up  the  vast  accumulated  store  of 
human  possessions  which  we  have  inherited  from  our 
fathers  —  which  to  us  is  as  the  air  we  breathe, —  had 
then  existence.  The  Reformation  was  then  young, — 
Luther  and  Calvin  and  Erasmus  were  men  of  yester- 
day; the  life-and-death  struggle  with  Catholicism  still 
tortured  eastern  Europe.  The  thirty  years'  war  in 
Germany  was  just  commenced,  and  the  youthful  Gus- 
tavus  Adolphus  had  yet  to  win  his  spurs.  The  blood 
of  St.  Bartholomew  was  but  half  a  century  old,  and 
the  murder  of  Henry  IV.  was  as  near  to  the  men  of 
1622  as  is  that  of  Abraham  Lincoln  to  us.  The  great 
Cardinal-Duke  was  then  organizing  modern  France; 
Charles  I.  had  not  yet  ascended  the  English  throne; 
Hampden  was  a  young  country  gentleman,  and  Oliver 
Cromwell  an  unpretending  English  squire.  While  men 
still  believed  that  the  sun  moved  round  the  earth, 
Galileo  and  Kepler  were  gradually  ascertaining  those 
laws  which  guide  the  planets  in  their  paths;  Bacon 
was  meditating  his  philosophy;  Don  Quixote  was  a 
newly  published  work,  with  a  local  reputation;  and 
Milton,  not  yet  a  Cambridge  pensioner,  was  making  his 
first  essays  at  verse.  Shakespeare  had  died  but  six 
years  before,  and,  indeed,  the  first  edition  of  his  plays 
did  not  appear  until  the  very  year  in  which  Weymouth 
was  settled.  Thus,  in  1622,  our  world  of  literature,  of 
science,  almost  of  history,  was  yet  to  be  created. 
Hardly  a  single  volume  of  our  current  English  litera- 
ture was  then  in  existence,  and  people  might  well  con 


ANNIVERSARY    ADDRESS.  < 

their  Bibles,  for,  in  the  English  tongue,  there  was  little 
else  to  read. 

Meanwhile  the  ]N'orth  American  continent  was  an 
unbroken  wilderness,  with  here  and  there,  few  and  far 
between,  from  the  St.  Lawrence  to  the  Gulf,  scattered 
specks  of  struggling  civilization,  hundreds  of  leagues 
apart,  dotting  the  skirts  of  the  green,  primeval  forest. 
It  was  at  not  the  least  famous  of  these  scattered 
specks, —  at  the  neighboring  town  of  Plymouth, —  that 
the  history  of  Weymouth  opened  on  a  day  towards  the 
latter  part  of  the  month  of  May,  in  the  year  1622.  The 
little  colony  had  then  been  established  in  its  new  home 
some  seventeen  months.  They  had  just  struggled 
through  their  second  winter,  and  now,  sadly  reduced  in 
number,  with  supplies  wholly  exhausted,  and  sorely 
distressed  in  spirit,  the  Pilgrims  were  anxiously  look- 
ing for  the  arrival  of  some  ship  from  England.  The 
Mayflower  had  left  them,  starting  on  her  homeward 
voyage  a  year  before,  and  once  only  during  their  weary 
sojourn,  in  the  month  of  the  previous  November,  had 
these  homesick  wanderers  on  the  sandy  Plymouth 
shores  been  cheered  by  any  tidings  from  the  living 
world.  On  this  particular  day,  however,  the  whole 
settlement  was  alive  with  excitement.  There  had  been 
great  trouble  with  the  neighboring  Indians,  and  the 
magistrates  were  on  the  point  of  delivering  one  of 
them  up  to  the  emissaries  of  his  sachem  to  be  put  to 
death,  when  suddenly  a  boat  was  seen  to  cross  the 
mouth  of  the  bay  and  disappear  behind  the  next  head- 
land.^ There  had  been  rumors  of  trouble  between  the 
English  and  the  French,  and  the  first  idea  of  the  set- 
tlers was  that  some  connection  existed  between  the 
sachem's  emissaries  and  those  on  board  the  boat.  The 
delivery  of  the  prisoner  was  consequently  deferred. 
At  the  same  time,  a  shot  was  fired  as  a  signal,  in  re- 

1  Winslow's  Good  Newes;  Young's  Chron.  of  Pilg.,  p.  291. 


8  TWO   HUNDRED   AND   FIFTIETH 

sponse  to  which  the  boat  changed  her  course,  and  came 
into  the  bay.  W^hen  at  last  it  touched  the  shore  it  was 
found  to  contain  ten  persons,  who  announced  them- 
selves as  being  in  the  service  of  one  Mr.  Thomas  Wes- 
ton, a  London  merchant,  well  known  to  the  elders  of 
Plymouth.  They  were  cordially  welcomed  with  a 
salute  of  three  volleys  of  musketry,  and  thus  finished 
a  somewhat  dangerous  voyage.^  It  appeared  they  had 
been  dispatched  from  England  some  months  before,  on 
board  a  vessel  named  the  Sparrow,  which  belonged  to 
Mr.  Weston,  and  was  bound  to  the  fishing  grounds  off 
the  coast  of  Maine:  they  were,  in  fact,  the  forerunners 
of  a  larger  party  which  Weston  was  organizing  in 
London,  with  the  design  of  establishing  a  trading  set- 
tlement somewhere  on  the  shores  of  Massachusetts 
Bay.  They  brought  with  them  letters  to  the  Plymouth 
magistrates,  but  they  were  wholly  unprovided  with 
either  food  or  outfit.  The  Sparrow  was  one  of  the 
fishing  fleet  which  yearly  visited  those  waters,  and  ap- 
parently Weston's  plan  had  been  for  these  people  to 
leave  her  near  the  Damariscove  Islands,  and  thence  to 
find  their  way  by  sea  to  Plymouth,  examining  the  coast 
as  they  went  along  with  a  view  to  settlement.  There 
was  something  curiously  reckless  in  the  methods  of 
those  old  explorers.  Weston  himself  afterwards  sought 
to  reach  Plymouth  in  the  same  way,  and  encountered 
many  strange  adventures  by  sea  and  land  before  he  got 
there.  In  the  present  case  his  messengers  do  not  ap- 
pear either  to  have  been  seafaring  men,  or  especially 
selected  for  the  work  they  had  to  do.  It  was  not 
until  they  were  actually  leaving  the  Sparrow  for  their 
voyage  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  miles  in  the  I^orth 
Atlantic  that  they  seemed  to  realize  their  own  utter 
helplessness,  and  the  extreme  vagueness  of  their 
errand.     Fortunately  for  them,  however,  the  mate  of 

1  Pliinehas  Pralt's  Narrative;  IV.  Mass.  Ilist.  Soc.  Coll.,  v.  4,  p.  478. 


ANNIVBESAEY  ADDRESS.  9 

that  vessel  was  a  daring  fellow,  and  volunteered  to 
venture  his  life  as  their  pilot.  They  accordingly  set 
sail  in  their  shallop,  skirting  along  the  coast.  They 
touched  at  the  Isle  of  Shoals  and  at  Cape  Ann,  and 
thence  they  ran  for  Boston  harbor,  where  they  passed 
some  four  or  five  days  exploring.  They  selected  the 
southerly  side  of  the  bay  as  the  best  place  for  the  pro- 
posed settlement,  as  in  these  parts  there  seemed  to  be 
the  fewest  natives,  and  made  a  bargain  with  the 
sachem  Aberdecest  for  what  land  they  needed  ;^  but, 
getting  uneasy  at  the  smallness  of  their  number,  they 
determined  to  go  to  Plymouth,  in  hopes  of  getting 
news  of  the  larger  enterprise.  Disappointed  in  this, 
they  landed  to  await  events.  The  shallop,  accompa- 
nied by  a  Plymouth  boat  in  search  of  supplies,  returned 
to  the  fishing  fleet,  and  its  seven  passengers  were,  for 
the  time  being,  incorporated  with  the  colony,  and  fared 
no  worse  than  others. 

Meanwhile  Mr.  Weston  had  organized  his  larger  ex- 
pedition, and  it  was  already  on  the  sea,  having  sailed 
from  London  about  the  1st  of  April.  Thus  Thomas 
Weston  played  a  very  prominent  part  in  the  early  set- 
tlement of  Weymouth,  as  he  had  already  done  in  that 
of  Pljanouth.  He  was  always  called  a  merchant,  but 
in  fact  he  was  a  pure  sixteenth  century  adventurer  of 
the  Smith  and  Raleigh  stamp, —  a  man  whose  brain 
teemed  with  schemes  for  the  deriving  of  sudden  gain 
from  the  settlement  of  the  new  continent.  We  first  get 
sight  of  him  in  Leyden  in  connection  with  the  Pilgrim 
fathers, —  the  treasurer,  the  representative,  the  active, 
moving  spirit  of  the  company  of  Merchant  Adventurers 
of  London,  who  then  were  looking  for  the  material 
with  which  to  eifect  a  settlement  within  the  Virginia 
patent.  Mr.  Treasurer  Weston  had  some  acquaintance 
with  the  Leyden  exiles,  and,  knowing  how  dissatisfied 

1  Pratt's  Narrative  ;  IV.  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  v.  4,  pp.  478,  487. 


10  TWO   HUNDRED   AND   FIFTIETH 

they  were  with  their  experience  in  Holland,  he  had 
pitched  on  them  as  the  best  material  for  the  work  in 
hand.  They  wei-e  then  negotiating  with  the  Dutch 
government  for  a  grant  of  lands  in  what  is  now  New 
York.  Weston  persuaded  them  to  abandon  this 
scheme,  promising  them,  on  the  part  of  his  associates, 
aid,  both  in  money  and  in  shipping.  "When  the  Speed- 
well arrived  at  Southampton  from  Delfthaven,  bearing 
the  fortunes  of  the  little  colony  between  its  decks,  it 
was  Weston  who  came  down  from  London  to  arrange 
the  last  details  of  the  adventure.  But  the  meeting  was 
not  a  propitious  one.  The  parties  fell  out  as  to  certain 
alterations  proposed  to  the  original  agreement  between 
them,  and  Weston  returned  to  London,  telling  the  emi- 
grants as  a  parting  word  that  they  must  expect  no 
further  aid  from  him.  Out  of  this  disagreement  grew 
the  scheme  of  another  and  independent  settlement. 
Weston  apparently  concluded  that  he  had  made  a  mis- 
take in  his  choice  of  agents.  A  mere  adventurer,  he 
looked  only  to  pecuniary  results.  The  return  of  the 
Mayflower  in  the  spring  of  1621  without  a  cargo  was  a 
great  disappointment  to  him,  and  he  did  not  delay 
writing  to  the  struggling  settlers  that  a  good  return 
cargo  by  the  next  ship  was  absolutely  essential  to  the 
life  of  the  enterprise.  They  did  make  an  effort,  there- 
fore, to  load  the  Fortune  with  such  articles  as  the 
country  afforded,  but  before  the  venture  reached  En- 
gland Weston  had  abandoned  the  Plymouth  colony  in 
disgust,  sold  out  his  interest  in  the  Merchant  Adven- 
turers' company  and  was  already  meditating  his  new 
and  rival  enterprise.  He  cared  more  for  beaver-skins 
in  hand  than  for  empires  hereafter,  and  the  Plymouth 
people  appeared  to  him  to  discourse  and  argue  and 
consult  when  they  should  have  been  trading.^  His 
confidence  in  the  success  of  a  trading  post  on  Massa- 

1  Bradford  ;  IV.  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  v.  3,  p.  107. 


ANNIVERSARY  ADDRESS.  11 

chusetts  Bay  was  not  shaken,  but  he  shared  m  the 
general  belief  of  the  day  that  families  were  an  incum- 
brance in  a  well  organized  plantation,  and  that  a  set- 
tlement made  up  of  able-bodied  men  only  could  do 
more  in  'New  England  in  seven  years  than  in  Old  En- 
gland in  twenty.^  On  this  principle  he  organized  his 
expedition,  which,  towards  the  close  of  April,  1622,  set 
sail  in  two  vessels,  the  Charity  of  one  hundred  tons 
and  the  Swan  of  thirty.  It  went  under  the  charge  of 
Weston's  brother-in-law,  one  Richard  Greene,  and  was 
made  up  of  the  roughest  material,  miscellaneously 
picked  up  in  the  streets  and  on  the  docks  of  London ; 
among  them,  however,  there  was  one  surgeon,  a  Mr. 
Salisbury,  and  a  lawyer  from  Furnival's  Inn,  after- 
wards very  notorious  in  early  colonial  annals,  one 
Thomas  Morton,  better  known  as  Morton  of  Merry 
Mount.^      Such   as   they   were,   however,   they   safely 

iLevett's  Voyage  ;  III.  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  v.  8,  p.  190. 

2  "So  base  in  condition  (for  ye  most  parte)  as  in  all  apearance  not  fitt 
for  an  honest  mans  company."  Letter  of  JohnPeirce  in  Bradford  (p.  123). 
Thomas  Morton  describes  them  as  "men  made  choice  of  at  all  adven- 
tures." The  JSfew  English  Canaan  (p.  72),  Force'' s  Hist.  Tracts  (v.  2).  In 
the  preface  to  his  Good  Newes,  Winslow  speaks  of  them  as  "a  disorderly 
colony,  .  .  .  who  were  a  stain  to  Old  England  that  bred  them  in 
respect  of  their  lives  and  manners  amongst  the  Indians."  Young,  C.  of  P. 
(p.  276).  Weston  himself  speaks  of  them  as  "rude  fellows,"  and  proposes 
to  reclaim  them  "from  that  profanenes  that  may  scandalise  ye  vioage," 
etc.  Bradford  (p.  120).  Robert  Cushman  in  a  letter  to  Governor  Brad- 
ford, gives  the  following  hint :  "  if  they  borrow  anything  of  you  let  them 
leave  a  good  pawne."     lb.  (p.  122). 

I  have  stated  that  Thomas  Morton  came  over  as  one  of  Weston's  com- 
pany. This  has  been  denied,  Young''s  C.  of  P.  (p.  334,  n.),  but  Morton 
himself  twice  states  in  the  ]S[ew  English  Canaan,  that  he  came  to  New 
England  in  1622,  and  in  one  of  the  two  cases  fixes  the  time  as  in  June  of 
that  year.  The  Neio  English  Canaan  (pp.  15,  41),  Force's  Hist.  Tracts 
(v.  2).  Winslow  states  that  the  Charity  and  Swan  arrived  "in  the  end  of 
June  or  beginning  of  July,"  1622.  Young's  C.  of  P.  (p.  296).  Now  no 
other  ships  from  England  came  to  Plymouth  that  year,  and  no  company 
such  as  Morton  describes  his  to  have  been,  except  Weston's,  arrived  in 
Massachusetts  between  1622  and  Wollaston's  arrival  in  1625.  Morton, 
however,  not  only  positively  says  that  he  arrived  at  the  very  time  the 
Weston  company  arrived,  but  he  shows  throughout  his  book  a  remarkable 
familiarity  not  only  with  the  events  which  occurred  in  the  Weston  settle- 
ment, but  with  the  people  composing  it.     A  connection  with  that  settle- 


12  TWO   HUNDRED    AND   FIFTIETH 

landed  at  Plymouth  towards  the  end  of  June, —  some 
sixty  stout  fellows,  without  apparently  the  remotest 
idea  why  they  had  come  or  what  they  had  come  to  do. 
jSTaturally  the  old  settlers  did  not  look  upon  them  as  a 
very  desirable  accession  to  the  colony,  especially  as 
they  early  evinced  a  disinclination  to  all  honest  labor 
and  an  extremely  well  developed  appetite  for  green 
corn.^  Having  landed  them,  the  larger  ship  sailed  for 
Virginia,  and  during  her  absence  preparations  were 
completed  for  removing  the  party  to  the  site  selected 
for  its  operations  at  Wessagusset,  as  Weymouth  was 
then  called.  In  the  course  of  a  few  weeks  the  ship 
returned,  the  healthy  members  of  the  expedition  were 
taken  on  board  and  sailed  for  Boston  Bay.  The  Ply- 
mouth people  saw  them  disappear  with  much  satisfac- 
tion, and  expressed  no  desire  to  have  them  return. 

It  was  August  before  the  party  reached  its  perma- 
nent quarters.     There  is  no  record  of  the  exact  spot 

ment  was  not  a  thing  which  Morton  would  have  been  likely  to  boast  of 
in  subsequent  years;  but,  judging  by  internal  evidence,  I  should  feel  in- 
clined not  only  to  venture  a  surmise  that  Morton  was  one  of  Weston's 
colony,  but  also  that  it  was  Morton  himself  who  proposed  to  the  Wessa- 
gusset "Parliament"  the  vicarious  execution  presently  to  be  described. 
The  whole  tone  of  his  account  of  that  affair  is  highly  suggestive  of  a  close 
connection  with  it,  and  of  great  sympathy  with  the  real  culprit  and  his 
ingenious  counsel. 

My  explanation  of  Morton's  statement  as  to  his  arrival  is,  that  in  it, 
with  his  usual  recklessness  as  to  facts,  he  confounded  two  events  which 
occurred  at  different  dates.  He  says.  The  New  English  Canaan  (p.  41), 
"  In  the  Moneth  of  lune.  Anno  Salutis  :  1622.  It  was  my  chaunce  to  arrive 
in  the  parts  of  New  England  with  30.  Servants,  and  provision  of  all  sorts 
fit  for  a  plantation."  Here  are  two  facts  distinctly  stated;  —  one  as  to  the 
date  of  his  arrival,  exactly  coinciding  with  that  of  the  Weston  company; — 
the  other  as  to  the  number  of  "servants,"  etc.,  answering  to  the  descrip- 
tion of  Wollaston's  company.  Morton,  I  think,  therefore,  came  out  with 
Weston's  company,  and  left  Wessagusset  in  March,  1023,  with  them;  he 
then,  more  than  two  years  later,  returned  there  with  Wollaston,  probably 
acting  as  his  guide.  When,  seven  years  later,  he  printed  his  book,  desir- 
ing to  make  his  American  experience  date  as  far  back  as  possible,  he  sim- 
ply confused  his  two  arrivals,  and  quietly  ignored  his  connection  with  the 
Weston  company,  which  had  left  a  very  unsavory  reputation  behind  it  as 
being  made  up  of  the  refuse  of  mankind. 

i  Winslow;  Young's  C.  of  P.,  p.  297. 


ANNIVERSARY  ADDRESS.  13 

on  which  they  placed  their  settlement,  bnt  a  very  gen- 
eral tradition  assigns  it  to  the  north  side  of  Phillips 
Creeks  JN^ot  improbably  there  was  a  better  dranght 
of  water  in  that  inlet  than  now;  but  it  is  well  estab- 
lished that  the  locality  was  to  the  south  of  the  Fore 
River,  and  the  very  sheltered  character  of  the  creek 
would  naturally  have  suggested  it  to  the  explorers  for 
the  object  they  had  in  view.  But  wherever  the  exact 
locality  may  have  been,  the  adventurers  found  them- 
selves towards  the  end  of  September  sufficiently  estab- 
lished in  it  to  let  the  larger  ship,  the  Charity,  return  to 
England.  The  smaller  one,  the  Swan,  had  been  de- 
signed for  the  use  of  the  plantation, —  it  was  indeed 
the  chief  item  of  their  stock  in  trade,  —  and  it  now 
remained  moored  in  Weymouth  River.  The  Charity 
had  left  the  party  fairly  supplied  for  the  winter,^  but 
they  were  a  wasteful,  improvident  set,  and  they  were 
hardly  left  to  their  own  devices  before  they  were  made 
to  realize  that  they  had  already  squandered  most  of 
their  resources,  though  the  winter  was  not  yet  begun. 
They  accordingly  bethought  themselves  of  the  people 
of  Plymouth,  and  wrote  to  Governor  Bradford  pro- 
posing a  trading  voyage  on  joint  account  in  search 
of  corn,  —  they  offering  to  supply  the  vessel  while  the 
Plymouth  people  were  to  furnish  the  quick  capital 
needed,  in  the  shape  of  articles  of  barter.  The  offer 
was  accepted,  and  in  October  the  expedition  set  out, 
with  Standi sh  in  command  and  the  Indian  Squanto 
acting  as  guide.  The  intention  was  to  weather  the 
cape  and  trade  along  the  south  coast,  but  they  were 
driven  back  by  adverse  winds,  and  then  Standish  fell 

i"A  correspondent  in  Quincy  thus  describes  the  place:  'It  is  about 
three  miles  south-east  of  the  granite  church  in  Quincy,  at  a  place  locally 
called  Old  Spain.'  Weston's  colony  sailed  up  Fore  River,  which  separates 
Quincy  from  Weymouth,  and  then  entered  Phillips  Creek,  and  commenced 
operations  on  its  north  bank."     BiisseWs  Guide  to  Plymouth  (p.  106,  n.). 

2Winslow;  Young's  C.  of  P.,  p.  299.     Bradford,  p.  130. 


14  TWO   HUNDRED   AND   FIFTIETH 

sick  of  a  fever  and  had  to  give  up  the  command. 
Governor  Bradford  took  his  place  and  again  the  Swan 
started  out;  but  it  was  IS^ovember  now,  and  the  back 
side  of  Cape  Cod  shewed  a  rougher  sea  than  they 
cared  to  face,  so  they  prudently  put  about  and  ran  into 
Sandwich  Bay.  Here  Squanto,  the  Indian  guide,  fell 
sick  and  died,  bequeathing  his  few  effects  to  his  Eng- 
lish friends  and  praying  that  he  might  find  rest  with 
the  Englishman's  God.^  Here  and  elsewhere,  how- 
ever, the  partners  secured  some  twenty-six  or  twenty- 
eight  hogsheads  of  corn  and  beans,  and  with  that  were 
fain  to  return.  An  equal  division  was  made,  and  the 
Swan  again  came  to  her  moorings  in  Weymouth  Fore 
River. 

The  relief  she  brought  with  her  was,  however,  only 
temporary;  disorder  and  waste  in  that  settlement  were 
chronic.  Greene  had  died  in  Plymouth  while  they 
were  preparing  for  the  trading  voyage,  and  a  man 
named  Sanders  had  succeeded  him  in  control.  Either 
he  was  incompetent  or  his  people  were  very  hard  to 
manage;  but,  in  either  case,  the  squandering  of  the 
supplies  continued,  and  the  prudent  Plymouth  settlers 
complained  that,  through  improvident  dealings  with 
the  Indians,  their  neighbors  ruined  the  market,  giving 
for  a  quart  of  corn  what  before  would  have  bought  a 
beaver-skin.^  At  length,  however,  about  the  beginning 
of  the  I^ew  Year,  the  "Wessagusset  plantation  found 
itself  face  to  face  with  dire  want.  The  hungry  settlers 
bartered  with  the  Indians,  giving  everything  they  had 
for  food;  they  even  stripped  the  clothes  from  their 
backs  and  the  blankets  from  their  beds.  They  made 
canoes  for  the  savages,  and,  for  a  mere  pittance  of 
corn,  became  their  hewers  of  wood  and  drawers  of 
water.^     During  that  long  and  dreary  winter  they  must 

1  Bradford,  p.  128.  ^  winslow;  Young's  C.  of  P.,  p.  302. 

3  Bradford,  p.  130. 


ANNIVEKSARY   ADDRESS.  15 

heartily  have  wished  themselves  back  in  the  slums  of 
London.  Weymouth  Fore  Kiver,  in  that  season,  must 
then  have  been  very  much  what  we  so  well  know  it  to 
be  now.  Doubtless  the  cold  tide  ebbed  and  flowed 
before  the  rude  block-house,  now  lifting  on  its  bosom 
huge  heaps  of  frozen  snow  and  ice,  and  then  again 
bearing  them  in  great  unsightly  blocks  swiftly  out  to 
sea.  The  frost  was  in  the  ground;  the  snow  was  on 
it.  So,  through  the  long,  hard,  savage  winter,  those 
seventy  poor  hungry  wretches  shivered  around  their 
desolate  habitations,  or  straggled  about  among  the 
neighboring  wigwams  in  search  of  food.  Their  am- 
munition was  nearly  exhausted  so  that  they  could  not 
kill  the  game.  They  ransacked  the  woods  in  search 
of  nuts;  and  they  followed  out  the  tide,  digging  in 
the  flats  for  clams  and  muscles.  But,  insufliciently 
supplied  with  clothes,  they  could  not  endure  the  win- 
ter's cold  in  this  slow  search  for  food,  and  one  poor 
fellow  while  grubbing  for  shell-fish  sank  into  the  mud, 
and,  being  too  reduced  to  drag  himself  out,  was  there 
found  dead,  —  an  end  to  his  adventures.  In  all  ten 
perished.^ 

In  their  necessities  they  had  made  the  fatal  mistake 
of  degrading  themselves  before  the  savages.  In  their 
utmost  needs  the  Plymouth  people  had  always  borne 
themselves  defiantly  to  the  Indian;  making  him  feel 
himself  in  presence  of  a  superior.  It  was  not  so  at 
Wessagusset.  The  settlers  there  alternately  cringed 
before  the  Indian  and  abused  him;  and  he,  seeing  them 
so  poor  and  weak  and  helpless,  first  grew  to  despise 
and  then  to  oppress  them.  I^aturally,  starving  men  of 
their  description  had  recourse  to  theft,  and  there  was 
no  one  to  steal  from  but  the  Indians;  so  the  Indians 
found  their  hidden  stores  of  corn  disturbed  and  knew 

1  Pratt's  Petition;  IV.  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  v.  4,  pp.  486,  7.  Bradford, 
p.  130.     Winslow;  Young's  C.  of  P.,  p.  332. 


16  TWO   HUNDRED   AND   FIFTIETH 

just  where  to  look  for  the  thieves.  This  led  to  a  bitter 
feeling  among  the  savages,  and  some  who  were  de- 
tected were  punished  in  their  sight.  But  with  men 
like  these,  punishment  was  a  less  teiTor  than  starva- 
tion, and  the  depredations  and  complaints  continued. 
The  Indians  would  no  longer  either  lend  or  sell  them 
food;  and,  indeed,  it  did  not  appear  that  they  had  any 
to  spare.^  Finally,  in  their  utter  desperation,  the  set- 
tlers thought  of  having  recourse  to  violence,  and  made 
ready  their  stockade  to  resist  the  attack,  sure  to  ensue, 
by  closing  every  entrance  into  it  save  one.  They  were 
hardly  prepared,  however,  to  go  to  such  extremes  as 
this,  relying  solely  on  their  own  strength.  According- 
ly, towards  the  end  of  February,  Sanders  sent  a  letter 
by  an  Indian  messenger  to  Governor  Bradford,  inform- 
ing him  of  their  necessities,  and  advising  him  that 
Sanders  himself  was  preparing  to  go  to  the  fishing 
stations  at  the  eastward  to  buy  provisions  from  the 
ships;  but  meanwhile  he  did  not  see  how  the  settle- 
ment was  to  live  until  his  return,  and  he  therefore 
wrote  to  see  if  the  Plymouth  people  would  sustain  him 
in  taking  what  was  necessary  from  the  Indians  by  force. 
The  answer  was  not  encouraging.  The  Plymouth 
magistrates  had  no  intention  of  embroiling  that  settle- 
ment with  its  savage  neighbors,  and  therefore  very 
plainly  informed  Sanders  that  he  and  his  need  expect 
no  countenance  from  them  in  any  such  proceeding  as 
that  proposed;  and  they  further  intimated  an  opinion 
that  they  would  all  be  killed  if  they  attempted  it. 
Finally,  they  advised  them  to  worry  through  the  win- 
ter, living  on  nuts  and  shell-fish  as  they  themselves 
were  doing,  especially  as  they  enjoyed  the  additional 
advantage  of  an  oyster-bed,  which  they  of  Plymouth 
had  not."     On  receiving  this  letter,  it  only  remained  to 

1  Winslow;  Young's  C.  of  P.,  p.  328. 
^Wiuslow;  Young's  C.  of  P.,  p.  329. 


ANNIVERSARY  ADDRESS.  17 

give  up  all  idea  of  a  recourse  to  violence,  and  Sanders 
then  took  the  Swan  and  himself  went  to  Plymouth  on 
a  begging  excursion.  The  people  there,  however,  felt 
unable  to  supply  his  vessel  even  for  a  voyage  to  the 
fishing  stations;  so  he  returned  to  Wessagusett,  there 
left  the  Swan,  and  started  on  a  shallop  for  the  coast 
of  Maine. 

Meanwhile  the  depredations  still  went  on,  and  the 
Indians  grew  more  and  more  aggressive.  They  took 
by  force  from  the  settlers  what  they  pleased,  and  if 
they  remonstrated,  threatened  them  with  their  knives. 
Apparently  they  treated  the  poor  wretches  like  dogs ; 
regarding  them  much  as  they  had  four  unfortunate 
Frenchmen  whom  they  had  taken  prisoners  some  years 
before,  after  destroying  their  vessel,  killing  them  at 
last  through  ill  usage.^  Finalty,  one  unfortunate  but 
peculiarly  skillful  thief  was  detected  and  bitter  com- 
plaint made  against  him.  The  terror-stricken  settlers 
offered  to  give  him  up  to  the  savages,  to  be  dealt  with 
as  they  saAV  fit.  The  savages,  however,  declined  to 
receive  him,  upon  which  his  companions  hung  him 
themselves  in  their  sight.  This  execution  has  since 
been  very  famous.  That  the  settlers  of  Wessagusset 
hung  the  real  culprit  does  not  admit  of  question,  for  it 
is  so  stated  both  by  those  who  were  present  and  by  the 
Plymouth  authorities  of  the  time,  who  were  perfectly 
familiar  with  all  the  facts.^  But  the  humorous  Mr. 
Thomas  Morton  of  Merry  Mount,  in  the  ISTew  English 
Canaan,  published  in  London  in  1632,  reclad  the  Wes- 

1  Pratt's  Narrative;  IV.  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  v.  4,  pp.  479,  489.  New 
Englisli  Canaan,  p.  18;  Force's  Tracts,  v.  2. 

2  Winslow,  in  his  Relation,  states  that  Pratt  told  them  of  this  execution 
on  his  arrival  at  Plymouth.  Young'' s  C.  of  P.  (p.  332);  see,  also,  Bradford 
(p.  130).  But  Pratt,  in  his  own  Narrative,  distinctly  says  that  "we  kep 
him  (the  malefactor)  bound  som  few  days,"  but  does  not  mention  the 
execution.  IV.  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.  (v.  4,  p.  482).  In  his  Relation  by 
Mather,  however,  he  states  that  the  real  delinquent  was  put  to  death. 
lb.  (p.  491). 


18  TWO   HUNDRED   AND   FIFTIETH 

sagusset   hanging  of  ten  years  previous  in  this  new 
and  fantastic  garb: 

"  One  amongst  the  rest  an  able  bodied  man,  that 
ranged  the  woodes,  to  see  what  it  would  afford,  lighted 
by  accident  on  an  Indian  barne,  and  from  thence  did 
take  a  capp  full  of  corne;  the  Salvage  owner  of  it, 
finding  by  the  foote  some  English  had  bin  there  came 
to  the  Plantation,  and  mad  complaint  after  this  manner. 

"  The  cheife  Commander  of  the  Company  one  this 
occation  called  a  Parliament  of  all  his  people  but  those 
that  were  sicke,  and  ill  at  ease.  And  wisely  now  they 
must  consult,  upon  this  huge  complaint,  that  a  privy 
knife,  or  stringe  of  beades  would  well  enough  have 
qualified,  and  Edward  lohnson  was  a  spetiall  judge  of 
this  businesse;  the  fact  was  there  in  repetition,  con- 
struction made,  that  it  was  fellony,  and  by  the  Lawes 
of  England  punished  with  death,  and  this  in  execution 
must  be  put,  for  an  example,  and  likewise  to  appease 
the  Salvage,  when  straight  wayes  one  arose,  mooved 
as  it  were  with  some  compassion,  and  said  hee  could 
not  well  gaine  say  the  former  sentence,  yet  hee  had 
conceaved  within  the  compasse  of  his  braine  a  Embrion, 
that  was  of  spetiall  consequence  to  be  delivered,  and 
cherished  hee  said,  that  it  would  most  aptly  serve  to 
pacific  the  Salvages  complaint,  and  save  the  life  of  one 
that  might  (if  neede  should  be)  stand  them  in  some 
good  steede,  being  younge  and  stronge,  fit  for  resist- 
ance against  an  enemy,  which  might  come  unexpected 
for  any  thinge  they  knew.  The  Oration  made  was  liked 
of  every  one,  and  hee  intreated  to  proceede  to  shew 
the  meanes  how  this  may  be  performed :  sayes  hee,  you 
all  agree  that  one  nmst  die,  and  one  shall  die,  this 
younge  mans  cloathes  we  will  take  of,  and  put  upon 
one,  that  is  old  and  impotent,  a  sickly  person  that  can- 
not escape  death,  such  is  the  disease  one  him  confirmed, 


ANNIVERSAEY  ADDRESS.  19 

that  die  hee  must,  put  the  youiige  mans  cloathes  on 
this  man,  and  let  the  sick  person  be  hanged  in  the 
others  steede.  Amen  sayes  one,  and  so  sayes  many 
more. 

"  And  this  had  like  to  have  prooved  their  finall  sen- 
tence, and  being  there  confirmed  by  Act  of  Parliament, 
to  after  ages  for  a  President:  But  that  one  with  a 
ravenus  voyce,  begunne  to  croake  and  bellow  for  re- 
venge, and  put  by  that  conclusive  motion,  alledging 
such  deceipts  might  be  a  meanes  here  after  to  exasper- 
ate the  mindes  of  the  complaininge  Salvages  and  that 
by  his  death,  the  Salvages  should  see  their  zeale  to 
Justice,  and  therefore  hee  should  die:  this  was  con- 
cluded; yet  neverthelesse  a  scruple  was  made;  now  to 
countermaunde  this  act,  did  represent  itselfe  unto  their 
mindes,  which  was  how  they  should  doe  to  get  the 
mans  good  wil:  this  was  indeede  a  spetiall  obstacle: 
for  without  (that  they  all  agreed)  it  would  be  danger- 
ous, for  any  man  to  attempt  the  execution  of  it,  lest 
mischiefe  should  befall  them  every  man;  he  was  a  per- 
son, that  in  his  wrath,  did  seeme  to  be  a  second  Samp- 
son, able  to  beate  out  their  branes  with  the  jawbone  of 
an  Asse:  therefore  they  called  the  man  and  by  per- 
swation  got  him  fast  bound  in  jest,  and  then  hanged 
him  up  hard  by  in  good  earnest,  who  with  a  weapon, 
and  at  liberty,  would  have  put  all  those  wise  judges  of 
this  Parliament  to  a  pitifnll  non  plus  (as  it  hath  been 
credibly  reported) ,  and  made  the  cheife  ludge  of  them 
all  buckell  to  him."^ 

The  work  from  which  this  extract  is  taken  was  pub- 
lished in  1632;  in  1663,  thirty-one  years  later,  appeared 
the  second  part  of  the  famous  English  satire,  Hudibras. 
Butler,  its  author,  had  come  across  the  JS^ew  English 
Canaan,  and  the  very  original  idea  of  vicarious  atone- 
ment  suggested   in   it   entertained   him    hugely.     He 

1  The  New  English  Canaan,  p.  74. 


20  TWO    HUNDRED    AND   FIFTIETH 

appropriated  and  improved  it,  adapting  the  facts  to 
his  own  fancy,  until  at  last  the  story  appeared  in  its 
new  guise,  in  what  was  the  most  popular  English  book 
of  the  day: 

Our  Brethren  of  ISTew-England  use 
Choice  malefactors  to  excuse, 
And  hang  the  Guiltless  in  their  stead, 
Of  whom  the  Churches  have  less  need; 
As  lately  't  happen'd:     In  a  town 
There  liv'd  a  Cobler,  and  but  one, 
That  out  of  Doctrine  could  cut  Use, 
And  mend  men's  lives  as  well  as  shoes. 
This  precious  Brother  having  slain, 
In  times  of  peace,  an  Indian, 
Not  out  of  malice,  but  mere  zeal, 
(Because  he  was  an  Infidel), 
The  mighty  Tottipottymoy 
Sent  to  our  Elders  an  envoy. 
Complaining  sorely  of.  the  breach 
Of  league  held  forth  by  Brother  Patch, 
Against  the  articles  in  force 
Between  both  churches,  his  and  ours, 
Por  which  he  craved  the  Saints  to  render 
Into  his  hands,  or  hang,  th'  offender; 
But  they  maturely  having  weigh'd 
They  had  no  more  but  him  o'  th'  trade, 
(A  man  that  served  them  in  a  double 
Capacity,  to  teach  and  cobble), 
Resolv'd  to  spare  him;  yet  to  do 
The  Indian  Hogan  Moghan  too 
Impartial  justice,  in  his  stead  did 
Hang  an  old  Weaver  that  was  bed-rid. i 

The  really  amusing  part  of  this  episode,  however, 
yet  remains  to  be  told.  When  it  was  rescued  from 
oblivion,  through  the  wit  of  Butler,  in  1G63,  the  re- 
action against  Puritanism  was  at  its  height,  and  every- 
thing which  tended  to  render  the  sect,  so  recently 
all-powerful,  either  odious  or  ridiculous,  was  eagerly 
sought  for  and  implicitly  believed.  ISTew  England,  and 
especially  the  province  of  Massachusetts  Bay,  was  out 
of  favor.     So  striking    an    exemplification  of  Puritan 

1  Hudibras,  Part  II,  Canto  II,  11.  409-36. 


ANNIVEESARY   ADDRESS.  21 

justice  was  not  to  be  disregarded.  The  whole  al^siird 
fiction  of  Morton  and  Butler  was,  therefore,  not  only 
accepted  as  historical  truth,  but  the  bastard  tradition 
was  solemnly  deposited  at  the  door  of  the  good  people 
of  Boston  and  Plymouth :  —  and  so  the  Weymouth 
hanging  passed  into  history  hand  in  hand  with  the 
famous  Blue-Laws  of  Connecticut.  There  is,  how- 
ever, something  irresistibly  ludicrous  in  picturing  to 
oneself  the  horror  and  dismay  with  which  the  severe 
elders  of  the  Plymouth  church  would  have  contem- 
plated the  saddling  of  their  fame  before  posterity,  on 
the  ribald  authority  of  the  l^ew  English  Canaan  and 
of  Hudibras,  with  the  apocryphal  misdeeds  of  Wes- 
ton's vagabonds.  But  so  it  happened,  and  nearly  a 
century  and  a  half  later  the  absurd  fiction  was  gravely 
recorded  in  his  history  by  Governor  Hutchinson,  as  a 
part  of  the  early  annals  of  'New  England.* 

But  it  is  necessary  to  return  to  Weston's  colony. 
We  left  it  face  to  face  with  famine,  deserted  by  its 
leader,  and  in  terror  of  the  savages;  in  the  wish  to 
propitiate  whom  the  starving,  shivering  outcasts  had 
just  hung  one  of  their  own  number  in  front  of  their 
palisade.  Even  this,  however,  did  not  appease  the 
Indians,  who  were  now  thoroughly  restless  and  had 
begun  to  conspire  together  all  along  the  coast  for  the 
simultaneous  destruction  of  both  the  infant  settlements. 
It  was  just  one  year  since  the  Virginia  massacre,  and 
that  tragedy  seemed  about  to  be  re-enacted  in  IN^ew 
England.  Intimations  of  the  impending  danger  reach- 
ed the  Plymouth  and  the  Weymouth  people  at  about 
the  same  time;  coming  to  the  former  through  a  friendly 
hint  from  Massasoit,  and  to  the  latter  from  the  talk  of 
an  Indian  woman. 

iHist.  of  Mass.,  v.  1,  p.  6,  n. ;  —  for  a  curious  traditionary  account  of 
this  execution  see,  also,  UrUvfs  Voyages  (pp.  116-18),  and  Proceedings  of 
Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  for  1S71  (p.  59). 


22  TWO   HUNDRED   AND   FIFTIETH 

The  Indians  were  now  watching  the  Wessagusset 
settlement  very  closely.  In  spite  of  their  terror,  the 
settlers,  however,  lived  on  in  a  reckless  way,  mixing 
freely  with  the  savages  and  taking  no  precautions 
against  surprise.^  But  one  at  least  of  their  number 
was  thoroughly  alarmed,  and  had  resolved  to  make 
his  escape  to  Plymouth.  This  was  Phinehas  Pratt, 
one  of  the  seven  who  had  come  on  in  the  shallop  during 
the  previous  May  in  advance  of  the  body  of  the  enter- 
prise. The  journey  he  now  proposed  to  himself  was 
both  difficult  and  dangerous.  It  was  March,  and  he 
was  insufficiently  clad  and  weak  for  want  of  food ;  he 
did  not  know  the  way,  nor  did  he  even  have  a  com- 
pass. The  Indians,  probably  in  furtherance  of  their 
half-matured  conspiracy,  had  gradually  moved  their 
wigwams  closer  and  closer  to  the  settlement.  Pratt's 
first  object  was  to  steal  away  unobserved  by  them. 
Yery  early  one  morning,  therefore,  preparing  a  small 
pack,  he  took  a  hoe  in  his  hand  and  left  the  settlement 
as  if  he  were  in  search  of  nuts,  or  about  to  dig  for 
shell-fish.  He  went  directly  towards  that  end  of  the 
swamp  nearest  the  wigwams.  Getting  close  to  them 
he  pretended  to  be  busy  digging,  until  he  had  satisfied 
himself  that  he  was  unobsei'ved ;  then  he  suddenly 
plunged  into  the  thicket  and  began  to  make  his  way  as 
]'apidly  as  he  could  in  a  southerly  direction.  The  sky 
was  overcast;  the  ground  also  was  in  many  places 
covered  with  snov/,  which  greatly  alarmed  him,  as  it 
seemed  likely  to  afi'ord  an  almost  certain  trail  in  case 
of  pursuit.  Fortunately  for  him  he  at  once  lost  his 
way,  or  he  must  soon  have  been  overtaken.  He  hur- 
ried along,  however,  as  fast  as  he  could,  until  late  in 
the  afternoon,  when  the  sun  appeared  sufficiently  to 
give  him  some  indication  of  his  course.  He  at  length 
came  to  the  Korth  River,  which  he  found  both  deep 

2  Wmslow;  Young's  C.  of  P.,  p.  336. 


ANNIVEESARY  ADDKESS.  23 

and  cold;  he  succeeded  in  fording  it,  however,  and,  as 
night  began  to  fall,  found  himself  too  weary  to  go 
further,  weak  from  cold  and  hunger  and  yet  afraid  to 
light  a  fire.  Finally  he  came  to  a  deep  hollow  in 
which  were  many  fallen  trees;  here  he  stopped,  lit  a 
fire  and  rested,  listening  to  the  howling  of  the  wolves 
in  the  woods  around  him.  At  night  the  sky  cleared 
and  he  distinguished  the  north  star,  thus  getting  his 
bearings.  He  resumed  his  journey  in  the  morning  but 
found  himself  unable  to  proceed  with  it,  and  so  re- 
turned to  his  camping  place  of  the  previous  night. 
The  succeeding  day,  however,  was  clear,  and  he  started 
again;  this  time  more  successfully,  for  by  three  o'clock 
in  the  afternoon  he  got  to  Duxbury  and  recognized 
the  landmarks;  soon  afterwards  reaching  the  settle- 
ment, thoroughly  exhausted,  but  in  safety.  He  thus 
finished  a  perilous  journey,  for  the  pursuers  were  not 
far  behind  him.  The  next  day  they  appeared  on  the 
outskirts  of  the  settlement  and  assured  themselves  of 
his  arrival.  They  had  lost  his  trail,  and,  following  the 
more  direct  path,  had  missed  him;  but  nevertheless  he 
had,  as  he  himself  expressed  it,  "  been  pursued  for  his 
life  in  time  of  frost  and  snow  as  a  deer  chased  by  the 
wolves."^ 

^PratVs  Narrative ;  IV.  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.  (v.  4,  pp.  483-7),  can  be 
accepted  as  authority  only  with  very  decided  limitations.  Prepared  for  a 
specific  jjurpose,  long  subsequent  to  the  occurrence  of  the  events  to  which 
it  relates,  it  is  neither  consistent  with  itself  nor  with  the  Plymouth  au- 
thorities. He  dwells  at  length  on  the  apprehension  of  an  attack  by  the 
Indians  felt  by  the  Weston  colony,  and  the  precautions  they  took  against 
it  (pp.  482-3).  Standish,  on  the  contrary,  reported  that  he  found  them 
living  in  reckless  disregard  of  every  precaution.  Winsloio,  in  Youny^s  C. 
of  P.  (p.  336.)  Pecksuot's  famous  speech  to  Standish,  which  Pratt  must 
often  have  heard  discussed  at  Plymouth,  finds  a  place  in  his  narrative  as 
having  been  made  to  him  long  previously  (p.  481).  Finally,  if  the  terror 
at  Wessagusset  was  such  as  he  asserts  it  to  have  been,  the  settlers  there 
could  have  gone  on  board  the  Swan  and  sailed  to  Plymouth  in  search  of 
aid,  quite  as  well  as  Standish  could  come  to  them  or  they  go  subsequently 
to  the  eastward.  Pratt  himself  was  unquestionably  both  alarmed  and 
hungry,  but  he  probably  fled  to  Plymouth  as  a  refugee.  When  he  got 
there,  having  doubtless  encountered  enough  of  danger   and  hardship  on 


24  TWO   HUNDRED   AND   FIFTIETH 

He  now  delivered  his  tidings  and  was  cared  for,  bnt 
found  the  Plymouth  settlement  fully  awake  to  the 
danger.  The  council  had  already  the  subject  under 
advisement,  and,  the  day  before  Pratt's  arrival,  had 
decided  upon  war.  Their  proceedings  were  vigorous. 
Captain  Miles  Standish  was  authorized  to  take  with 
him  such  a  force  as  was  in  his  judgment  sufficient  to 
enable  him  to  hold  his  own  against  all  the  Indians  in 
the  neighborhood  of  Boston  Bay,  and  go  at  once  to 
Wessagusset.  He  did  not  apparently  place  a  very 
high  estimate  either  on  the  numbers  or  the  valor  of 
his  opponents,  for  he  selected  only  eight  men,^  and 
with  them  was  on  the  point  of  starting  when  Pratt 
arrived.  The  next  day,  March  25,  1623,  the  wind 
proved  fair,  and  so  the  little  army  got  into  its  boat  and 
set  sail. 

Reaching  Weymouth  Fore  River  on  the  26th,  after 
a  prosperous  voyage,  Standish  steered  directly  for  the 
Swan,  which  was  lying  at  her  moorings  near  the  set- 
tlement. Greatly  to  his  surprise  he  found  her  wholly 
deserted, —  there  was  not  a  soul  on  board.  A  musket 
was  fired  as  a  signal,  which  attracted  the  attention  of 
a  few  miserable  creatures  busy  searching  for  nuts. 
From  them  Standish  learned  that  the  principal  men  of 
the  settlement  were  in  the  stockade;  so  he  landed, 
and,  after  some  conversation  with  them,  promptly  be- 
gan his  preparations.  The  stragglers  were  all  called 
in,  and  every  one  was  forbidden  to  go  beyond  gun- 
shot from  the  stockade.  Rations  of  corn  were  issued 
to  all  out  of  the  slender  stock  which  the  prudent  Ply- 

tlie  way,  be  found  Standish  already  starting  for  Wessagusset.  His  own 
sense  of  the  dangei'S  he  had  run  and  the  heroism  he  had  displayed,  both 
before  and  during  his  flight,  probably  greAv  with  each  succeeding  year. 
I  have  adopted  only  such  of  his  statements  as  are  corroborated  by  others,  ■ 
or  seem  to  wear  an  aspect  of  inherent  probability. 

2  The  whole  number  of  Indians  in  that  vicinity  was  not  computed  at 
over  fifty.  Young's  Chron.  of  Mass.  (p.  305).  Winsloio ;  Yoxing's  C.  of  P. 
(p.  310)/ 


ANNIVERSARY  ADDRESS.  25 

mouth  people  had  reserved  for  seed,  and  something 
like  discipline  was  established.  The  weather  was  wet 
and  stormy,  delaying  final  operations,  but  the  Indians, 
nevertheless,  seeing  Standish  on  the  ground,  began  to 
suspect  that  their  designs  were  discovered.  Pecksuot, 
their  chief,  accordingly  came  in  and  had  an  interview, 
Hobbamock,  a  friendly  Indian  who  had  accompanied 
the  expedition,  acting  as  interpreter. 

This  was  one  of  the  very  famous  Indian  talks  of 
early  ^ew  England  annals;  not  only  was  it  chronicled 
in  all  the  records  of  the  time,  but  it  has  since  found  a 
place  in  poetry,  so  that  to-day  the  speech  of  the  savage 
Pecksuot  to  the  doughty  Miles  Standish  is  most  famil- 
iar to  us  through  the  verses  of  Longfellow^:  — 

Then  he  unsheathed  his  knife,  and,  wlietting  the  blade  on  his  left 

hand, 
Held  it  aloft,  and  displayed  a  woman's  face  on  the  handle, 
Saying,  with  hitter  expression  and  look  of  sinister  meaning: 
"  I  have  another  at  home,  with  the  face  of  a  man  on  the  handle; 
By  and  by  they  shall  marry;  and  there  will  be  plenty  of  children  !  " 

This  figurative  language  both  Standish  and  his  In- 
dian interpreter  accepted  as  meaning  war.  At  the 
moment,  however,  no  act  of  overt  hostility  took  place 
on  either  side.  Standish  was  not  ready.  His  plan  Avas 
to  strike,  but  when  he  struck  he  meant  to  strike  hard. 
He  proposed,  in  fact,  to  get  all  the  Indians  he  could 
into  his  power  and  then  to  kill  them.^  The  day  after 
the  knife  interview  he  found  himself  with  several  of 
his  men  in  a  room  with  four  of  the  savages,  among 
whom  were  Pecksuot  and  Wituwamat.  Suddenly 
Standish  gave  the  signal  and  flung  himself  on  Peck- 
suot, snatching  his  knife  from  its  sheath  on  his  neck 
and  stabbing  him  with  it.  The  door  was  closed  and 
a  lifti-and-death  struggle  ensued.     The  savages  were 

iThe  Courtsliip  of  Miles  Standish,  Part  VII.     See  also  Pratt's  iSTarra- 
tive;  IV.  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  v.  4,  p.  481,  and  Young's  C.  of  P.,  p.  338. 
2  Winslow;  Young's  C.  of  P.,  p.  331.     Bradford,  p.  164. 


26  TWO   HUNDRED   AND   FIFTIETH 

taken  by  surprise,  but  they  fought  hard,  making  little 
noise  but  catching  at  their  weapons  and  struggling 
until  they  Avere  cut  almost  to  pieces.  Finally  Peck- 
suot,  Wituwamat  and  a  third  Indian  were  killed;  while 
a  fourth,  a  youth  of  eighteen,  was  overpowered  and 
secured;  him,  Standish  subsequently  hung.  The  mas- 
sacre, for  such  in  historic  justice  it  must  be  called, 
seeing  that  they  killed  every  man  they  could  lay  their 
hands  on,  then  began.  There  were  eight  warriors  in 
the  stockade  at  the  time, —  Standish  and  his  party  had 
killed  three  and  secured  one;  they  subsequently  killed 
another,  while  the  Weston  people  despatched  two  more. 
One  only  escaped  to  give  the  alarm,  which  was  rapidly 
spread  through  the  Indian  villages. 

Standish  immediately  followed  up  his  advantage. 
Leaving  some  Indian  women,  who  happened  to  be  in 
the  stockade,  in  charge  of  a  portion  of  his  own  men 
and  of  the  settlers,  he  took  one  or  two  of  the  latter 
and  the  remainder  of  his  own  force,  and  started  in 
pursuit.  He  had  gone  no  great  distance  when  a  file 
of  Indians  was  seen  advancing.  Both  parties  hurried 
forward  to  secure  the  advantage  of  a  rising  ground 
near  at  hand.  Standish  got  to  it  first,  and  the  savages 
at  once  scattered,  sheltering  themselves  behind  trees 
and  discharging  a  flight  of  arrows  at  their  opponents. 
The  engagement  was,  however,  very  brief,  for  Hobba- 
mock,  throwing  ofi"  his  coat,  rushed  at  his  countrymen, 
who  incontinently  fled  to  the  swamp;  one  only  of  the 
party  being  injured,  a  shot  breaking  his  arm.  Further 
pursuit  was  unavailing,  so  Standish  returned  to  the 
stockade,  from  which  he  caused  the  Indian  w^omen  to 
be  dismissed  unharmed. 

The  Weston  people  now  discovered  that  they  had 
had  enough  of  life  in  the  wilderness,  and  wholly  de- 
clined to  tarry  any  longer  at  Wessagusset.  Standish 
asserted  his  readiness  to  hold  the  place  against  all  the 


ANNIVERSARY   ADDRESS.  27 

Indians  of  the  vicinage  with  half  the  force  of  the  Wes- 
ton party,  bnt  they  were  not  Standishes,  nor  did  they 
feel  any  call  to  heroism.  So,  the  choice  being  given 
to  them,  they  divided,  —  one  portion,  on  board  the 
Swan,  following  Sanders  to  the  coast  of  Maine,  while 
the  rest  accompanied  Standish  home  and  cast  in  their 
lot  among  the  Plymouth  people.  Standish  supplied 
those  on  board  the  Swan  with  a  sufficiency  of  corn 
whereon  to  sustain  life,  and  saw  them  safely  leave  the 
harbor  and  bear  away  to  the  north  and  east;  then  he 
himself,  carrying  with  him  the  head  of  Wituwamat, 
to  ornament  the  Plymouth  block-house  as  a  terror  to 
all  evil-disposed  savages,  sailed  prosperously  home. 

Thus  in  failure,  disgrace  and  bloodshed  ended  the 
first  attempt  of  a  settlement  at  Weym^outh.  Ill-con- 
ceived, ill-executed,  ill-fated,  it  was  probably  saved  from 
utter  extirpation  only  by  the  energetic  interference  of 
the  Plymouth  people.  And  these  last  not  unjustifiably 
indulged  in  some  grim  chuckling  over  the  speedy 
downfall  of  those  who  had  thought  to  teach  them  hov/ 
to  subdue  a  wilderness.^  Three  men  only  remained 
behind  at  Wessagusset.  One  of  these  had  domesti- 
cated himself  among  the  savages;  the  other  two,  in 
defiance  of  orders,  had  straggled  off  to  an  Indian  set- 
tlement where  they  had  been  left  by  a  companion  on 
the  day  of  the  engagement.  All  three  were  put  to 
death  by  the  savages,  probably  with  that  refinement  of 
cruelty  which  distinguished  Indian  executions  ;  for, 
afterwards,  in  speaking  of  their  fate,  one  of  the  savages 
said,  "  When  we  killed  your  men  they  cried  and  made 
ill-favored  faces."  ^ 

When  good  old  John  Robinson,  at  Leyden,  heard  of 
the  Wessagusset  killing   he  was    sorely  moved.     He 

1  Bradford,  p.  132. 

2  Pratt's  Narrative;  IV.  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  v.  4,  p.  486.  Now  English 
Canaan,  p.  76;  Force's  Tracts,  v.  2.     Young's  C.  of  P.,  p.  344. 


28  TWO    HUNDRED    AND   FIFTIETH 

wrote  out  to  his  flock  a  letter  of  gentle  caution  in 
respect  to  the  rough  ways  of  Captain  Miles  Stanclish, 
who,  though  the  aged  pastor  loved  him,  he  yet  inti- 
mated was  one  perchance  "  wanting  that  tenderness  of 
the  life  of  man  which  is  meet."  He  also  referred  to 
the  Wessagusset  settlers  as  "  heathenish  Christians," 
and  exclaimed  in  reference  to  Pecksuot  and  Witu- 
wamat,  "  Oh!  how  happy  a  thing  had  it  been  if  you  had 
converted  some  before  yon  had  killed  any."^  ISTever- 
theless,  rough  as  he  was,  the  Plymouth  people  then 
stood  in  greater  need  of  stern  Miles  Standish  than  of 
2:entle  John  Pobinson.  The  times  were  not  meet  for 
works  of  conversion,  nor  were  Pecksnot  and  his  friends 
favorable  subjects  therefor.  In  the  light  of  the  Vir- 
ginia experience  of  1622,  and  of  the  JSTew  England 
terror  during  the  war  of  King  Philip,  posterity  must 
concede  that  the  severe  course  of  Miles  Standish  here 
in  Weymouth,  in  March,  1623,  was  the  most  truly 
merciful  course.  The  settlers  had  demoralized  the 
Indians.  They  had  at  once  inspired  them  with  anger, 
with  dislike  and  with  contempt.  Any  sign  of  faltering 
on  the  part  of  the  Plymouth  people  would  have  been 
fatal.  Had  they  abandoned  Wessagusset  to  its  fate, 
the  settlers  there  would  have  been  exterminated,  and 
the  savages,  maddened  by  a  taste  of  blood,  would  have 
turned  upon  Plymouth.  The  woods  would  have  rung 
with  war-whoops  and  the  feeble  colony  could  scarcely 
have  survived  the  ordeal  of  blood  treading  hard  on 
that  of  famine.  Standish  crushed  out  the  danger  in 
the  incipient  stage.  By  ruthlessl}^  murdering  seven 
men  he  re-established  the  moral  ascendency  of  the 
whites,  and  so  saved  the  lives  of  hundreds.  He 
stopped  the  war  before  it  began,  and  deferred  it  to 
another  generation.  In  so  doing,  the  Puritan  captain 
revealed  the  instinctive  sagacity   of  a  true   soldier, — 

3  Bradford,  p.  164. 


ANNIVERSARY   ADDRESS.  29 

he  struck  so  that  he  did  not  have  to  strike  twice:  —  he 
cowed  the  savages  at  Weymouth,  and  for  years  peace 
was  secured  for  Plymouth.^ 

All  this  took  place  in  March,  and,  shortly  after,  the 
unfortunate  Mr.  Weston  arrived  on  the  coast  of  Maine, 
seeking  news  of  his  colony.  He  there  heard  of  its 
ruin  and,  with  one  or  two  men,  started  in  a  small  boat 
for  Wessagusset.  His  ill-fortune  pursued  him.  Over- 
taken by  a  storm  he  was  cast  away  near  where  I^ew- 
buryport  now  stands,  and  barely  saved  his  life  only  to 
fall  into  the  hands  of  the  savages,  who  stripped  him 
to  his  shirt.  He  succeeded,  however,  in  finding  his 
way  back  to  the  fishing  stations  in  Maine  and  thence 
to  Plymouth.  The  people  there  received  him  kindly, 
and  loaned  him  some  beaver-skins  on  which  to  trade: 
and  again  he  returned  to  the  eastward.  There  he 
found  his  smaller  vessel,  the  Swan,  and  some  of  his 
people.  Afterwards  he  seems  to  have  been  both  very 
adventurous  and  very  unfortunate.  He  made  frequent 
voyages  to  Virginia,  and  now  and  again  flits  vaguely 
across  the  page  of  Plymouth  history,  —  in  debt,  in 
trouble,  in  arrest.  Finally  he  ret-urned  to  England, 
where,  long  afterwards,  during  the  wars  of  Cromwell, 
he  died  of  the  plague  at  Bristol. 

But  Wessagusset  was  not  destined  long  to  remain 
a  solitude.  Deserted  in  March,  it  was  again  occupied 
just  six  months  later;  for,  in  the  middle  of  September, 
1623,  Captain  Robert  Gorges,  a  son  of  that  Sir  Ferdi- 
nand whose  name  is  so  prominent  in  the  early  annals 
of  New  England,  sailed  up  the  Fore  River,  and  landed 
at  Weston's  deserted  plantation.  His  enterprise  was 
of  a  quite  different  character  from  that  which  had  pre- 
ceded it.  He  held  a  grant  from  the  Council  of  'New 
England,  covering  a  tract  of  land  vaguely  described  as 
lying  on  the  north-east  side  of  Massachusetts  Bay,  as 

iWinslow;  Young's  C.  of  P.,  p.  344.     The  New  English  Canaan,  p.  73. 


30  TWO   HUNDRED   AND   FIFTIETH 

what  is  now  known  as  Boston  Bay  was  then  called, 
and  covering  ten  miles  of  sea-front,  while  stretching 
thirty  miles  into  the  interior.  He  was  also  commis- 
sioned as  Governor-General,  and  authorized  to  correct 
any  abuses  which  had  crept  into  the  affairs  of  the  com- 
pany in  America ;  for  the  more  effectual  doing  of  which 
he  was  further  provided  with  a  grand  admiral  and  a 
council,  of  which  the  Governor  of  Plymouth  for  the 
time  being  was  ex  officio  a  member.  His  jurisdiction 
was  of  the  largest  descrijjtion,  civil,  criminal  and  ec- 
clesiastical, for  he  also  brought  with  him  in  his  com- 
pany one  Mr.  William  Morell,  a  clergyman  of  the 
Church  of  England,  holding  a  commission  from  the 
ecclesiastical  courts  of  the  mother  country,  which  au- 
thorized him  to  exercise  a  species  of  superintendency 
over  the  churches  of  the  colony.  This  whole  expedi- 
tion seems,  in  fact,  to  have  been  organized  on  a  most 
ludicrously  grandiose  scale,  probably  to  meet  the  views 
of  its  commander,  who  had  recently  seen  some  service 
in  the  Venetian  wars  and  was  now  nourishing  ambi- 
tious visions  of  an  empire  in  the  wilderness.  The 
establishment  of  Episcopacy  in  New  England  had  long 
been  a  favorite  idea  with  Sir  Ferdinand  Gorges,^  and 
now,  when  he  sent  his  son  thither,  he  provided  him  not 
only  with  a  council  and  an  admiral,  but  also  with  a 
jjrimate.  This  company  was,  however,  composed  of  a 
different  material  from  that  of  Weston's.  It  was  made 
up  of  families,  as  well  as  of  individuals,  and  contained 
in  it  some  elements  of  strength.^  The  party  disem- 
barked just  as  the  autumn  tints  began  to  glow  through 
the  forest,  and  busied  themselves  with  the  erection  of 
their  storehouses.  Captain  Gorges  meanwhile  notified 
the  Plymouth  people  of  his  arrival,  and  Governor 
Bradford  prepared  to  answer  the  summons  in  person. 
Before  he  could  do  so,  however,  Gorges  started  on  a 

1  Young's  C.  of  P.,  p.  477,  n.  2  Bradford,  p.  148. 


ANNIVERSARY   ADDRESS.  31 

voyage  to  the  fishing  stations  in  Maine ;  but,  encoun- 
tering some  rough  weather  on  his  way,  he  put  about 
and  ran  into  Plymouth  in  search  of  a  pilot.  He  re- 
mained there  some  fourteen  days,  and  then,  instead  of 
resuming  his  voyage,  he  returned  to  Wessagusset  by 
land.  Upon  reaching  his  seat  of  government  he,  for 
the  first,  and,  so  far  as  appears,  for  the  last  time,  made 
any  use  of  his  great  civil  and  military  powers  by  caus- 
ing Weston,  who  had  turned  up  in  Plymouth  Bay,  on 
board  the  Swan,  to  be  arrested  and  sent  with  this  ves- 
sel around  to  Weymouth.  His  own  ship,  meanwhile, 
remained  at  Plymouth,  where,  on  the  5th  of  I^^ovember, 
her  company  occasioned  a  great  disaster  to  the  unfor- 
tunate colonists.  The  weather  was  cold,  and  a  number 
of  seamen  were  celebrating  Guy  Fawkes'  day  before  a 
large  fire  in  one  of  the  houses,  when  the  thatch  ignited, 
and,  for  a  brief  time,  it  was  a  question  whether  the 
general  storehouse,  and  with  it  the  Plymouth  colony, 
were  not  to  be  destroyed.  Fortunately  only  three  or 
four  houses  were  burned,  but  it  is  curious  to  reflect 
how  much  more  heavily  the  loss  of  those  few  log  huts 
bore  on  the  Plymouth  of  those  days  than  did  the  great 
conflagration  of  two  centuries  and  a  half  later  on  the 
Boston  of  ours.  At  any  rate  it  seemed  to  sicken 
Captain  Robert  Gorges  and  his  party,  for,  shortly  after 
it,  he  retired  to  England,  thoroughly  disgusted  with 
the  work  of  founding  empires  in  the  ^ew  World.^ 
With  him  returned  the  larger  part  of  his  company, 
but  not  the  whole  of  it ;  nor,  indeed,  does  Weymouth 
seem  ever  again  to  have  been  abandoned  as  a  settle- 
ment. While  some  of  the  party  went  to  Virginia, 
others  remained  at  Wessagusset,  and  Mr.  Morell  took 
up  his  temporary  abode  at  Plymouth.  This  gentleman 
appears,  indeed,  to  have  been  not  only  a  man  of  educa- 
tion and  refinement,  but  also  to  have  been  possessed 

1  Bradford,  p.  154, 


32  TWO    HUNDRED    AND   FIFTIETH 

of  discretion  and  good  sense.  For  a  wonder  he,  an 
ecclesiastic,  remained  at  Plymouth  nearly  a  year  with 
a  letter  in  his  pocket  conferrino-  on  him  great  powers, 
and  yet  he  neither  sought  to  exercise  any  authority, 
nor  did  he  intrigue  or  stir  up  any  trouble.  On  the 
contrary,  he  quietly  minded  his  own  business,  and  be- 
guiled his  leisure  hours  in  the  composition  of  a  very 
good  Latin  poem  descriptive  of  the  country.^  He  made 
of  it,  too,  a  very  bad  metrical  translation.  The  piece 
is  curious,  but  now  scarcely  repays  perusal.^  With  the 
country  he  was  charmed,  but  not  so  with  the  natives 
who  inhabited  it.  Indeed,  he  seems  to  have  been  im- 
pressed with  America  much  as  Bishop  Reginald  Heber 
was,  long  afterwards,  with  India,  for  he  described 
his  diocese  in  language  similar  to  that  used  by  the 
latter  dignitary : 

"  Though  every  prospect  pleases, 
And  only  man  is  vile." 

A  few  very  brief  extracts  will  give  a  sufficient  idea 
both  of  the  spirit  of  his  poem  and  of  the  otherwise  than 
smoothness  of  his  versification.  It  is  Weymouth  itself, 
perhaps,  that  he  thus  describes :  — 

"  The  fruitfull  and  well  watered  earth  doth  glad 
All  hearts,  when  Flora  's  with  her  spangles  clad, 
And  yeelds  an  hundred  fold  for  one, 
To  feede  the  bee  and  to  invite  the  drone. 


There  nature's  bounties,  though  not  planted  are, 
Great  store  and  sorts  of  berries  great  and  faire: 
The  filberd,  cherry  and  the  fruitful  vine, 
Which  cheares  the  heart  and  makes  it  more  divine. 
Earth's  spangled  beauties  pleasing  smell  and  sight ; 
Objects  for  gallant  choice  and  chief e  delight. 


1  Ecclesiastical  History  of  Massachusetts;  I.  Mass.  Hist.  See.  Coll.,  v.  9, 
p.  6. 

2  Both  poem  and  translation  are  to  be  found  in  I.  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Coll., 
V.  1,  p.  125. 


ANNIVERSARY   ADDRESS.  od 

"  All  ore  that  maiue  the  vernant  trees  abound, 
Where  cedar,  cypres,  spruce  and  beech  are  found. 
Ash,  oake  and  wal-nut,  pines  and  junipere; 
The  hasel,  palme  and  hundred  more  are  there. 
Ther's  grasse  and  hearbs  contenting  man  and  beast. 
On  which  both  deare,  and  beares,  and  wolves  do  feast." 

When  he  comes  to  deal  with  the  noble  savage,  how- 
ever, his  enthusiasm  rapidly  wanes :  — 

"  They're  wondrous  cruell,  strangely  base  and  vile, 
Quickly  displeas'd,  and  hardly  reconcil'd; 


"  Whose  hayre  is  cut  with  greeces,  yet  a  locke 
Is  left;  the  left  side  bound  up  in  a  knott : 

"  Of  body  straight,  tall,  strong,  mantled  in  skin 
Of  deare  or  bever,  with  the  hayre-side  in; 

"  A  kind  oi pinsen  keeps  their  feet  from  cold, 
Which  after  travels  they  put  off,  up-fold. 
Themselves  they  warme,  their  ungirt  limbes  they  rest 
In  straw,  and  houses,  like  to  sties." 

The  Rev.  William  Morell,  however,  the  next  year* 
(1624),  abandoned  both  the  wilderness  and  the  savages, 
returning  to  England;  and  with  him  Episcopacy,  that 
exotic  in  'New  England,  withdrew  for  many  years  from 
these  shores.  The  settlement  at  Weymouth  was  not 
for  all  that  wholly  broken  up.  This  statement  now 
admits  of  conclusive  j)roof;  for  while  previous  to 
Robert  Gorges'  arrival  at  Weymouth  the  region  about 
Boston  Bay  had  been  wholly  unoccupied,  from  that 
time  forward  there  is  evidence  of  scattered  plantations 
upon  its  islands  and  along  its  shores.  The  Plymouth 
annals  distinctly  state  that  some  few  of  his  people  re- 
mained behind  when  he  withdrew,  and  were  assisted 
from  thence.^  Two  years  later,  the  next  settlers  in  that 
vicinity  find  them  still  at  Wessagusset.^  Two  years 
later  yet  they  re-appear  in  history,  as  we  shall  pres- 

1  Bradford,  p.  154.  2  xhe  New  English  Canaan,  p.  84. 


34  TWO    HUNDRED    AND    FIFTIETH 

entlj  see.  In  1631,  or  three  years  later,  the  persons 
through  whom  the  place  thus  re-appears  take  the  oath 
as  freemen  on  the  settlement  of  Boston.^  In  1632, 
Governor  Wmthrop  visited  Wessagusset  and  was  lib- 
erally entertained  by  those  ]*esiding  there .^  The  next 
year,  the  place  is  described  as  a  "small  village";^  and 
finally,  in  1636,  it  sends  as  a  deputy  to  the  General 
Court  one  of  those  who  had  been  prominent  in  connec- 
tion with  events  there  in  1628.*  There  is,  therefore, 
but  one  year,  1624,  unaccounted  for,  between  the  Gor- 
ges' settlement  and  the  incorporation  of  the  town  in 
1635.  But  the  evidence  does  not  stop  here.  When 
Captain  Gorges  returned  to  England,  the  records  of 
the  Council  of  ISTew  England  state  that  he  left  his  plan- 
tation in  charge  of  certain  persons,  who  are  referred  to 
as  "his  servants,  and  certain  other  Undertakers  and 
Tenants."^  Shortly  after,  Robert  Gorges  died  and  his 
brother  John  succeeded  to  the  grant.  He  undertook 
to  convey  a  portion  of  it  to  one  John  Oldham,  and  ac- 
cordingly wrote  to  William  Blackstone  and  William 
Jeffries,  two  of  the  settlers  on  Boston  Bay,  to  put  his 
grantee  in  possession. 

And  now  we  come  to  a  most  interesting  point  in 
connection  Avith  the  earliest  records  of  Boston.  When 
Winthrop  and  his  company  landed  in  Charlestown  in 
1630,  they  found  this  William  Blackstone  already  set- 
tled on  the  opposite  peninsula  in  what  is  now  Boston.^ 

1  Records  of  Mass.,  v.  1,  p.  366.  ^gavage's  Winthrop,  v.  1,  p.  91. 

3  Wood's  New  England's  Prospect;  Young's  Chron.  of  Mass.,  p.  395, 
•i  Records  of  Mass.,  v.  1,  pp.  174-9.  ^  Hazard's  Hist.  Coll.,  v.  1,  p.  391, 
s  As  respects  Blackstone,  see  Young''s  Chron.  of  Mass.  (p.  169),  but  the 
best  account  of  this  singular  and  interesting  man  is  found  in  Bliss'  History 
of  Rehoboth.  It  is  another  point  of  some  importance  as  identifying  Black- 
stone with  the  Gorges  settlement,  that  he  had  received  Episcopal  ordina- 
tion in  England.  II.  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.  (v.  9,  p.  174.)  Now  the  Gorges 
settlement  was  a  distinct  and  the  only  attempt  to  plant  Episcopacy  in  early 
Massachusetts.  Morell  and  Blackstone  were  both  educated  and  studious 
men  of  somewhat  similar  cast  of  minds  and  thought.  The  obvious  and 
natural  explanation  of  their  presence  in  the  wilderness  would  be  that  they 
came  there  together,  influenced  by  the  same  inducements. 


ANKIVEESARY   ADDRESS.  35 

He  had  then  been  there  some  five  or  six  years,  but 
how  he  got  there  or  from  whence  has  always  been 
a  mystery.  There  he  was,  however.  Kow  when  John 
Gorges  proposed  to  make  over  to  Oldham  his  brother's 
grant  of  land,  he  naturally  would  have  sent  his  direc- 
tions to  those  "  servants,"  "  undertakers  "  or  "  ten- 
ants," who  had  been  left  in  possession  of  it  by  his 
brother.  As  a  matter  of  fact  he  did  send  his  in- 
structions to  Blackstone  and  Jeflfries,  and  the  last 
named  then  was  living  at  Wessagusset,  while  both 
were  within  the  limits  of  the  patent.  The  inference  is 
diflEicult  to  resist  that  both  had  belonged  to  the  Gorges 
settlement, —  that  one  had  remained  on  its  site,  while 
the  other  had  moved  away  about  a  year  after  Gorges 
left  to  a  locality  which  pleased  him  better.  That  Jeff- 
ries was  settled  at  Weymouth  admits  of  no  question, 
for  when  that  place  next  appears  in  the  authentic 
records  of  the  time  it  is  under  a  double  name, 
both  as  Wessagusset  and  as  Jeffries  and  Burslem's 
plantation. 

The  whole  chain  of  connected  evidence,  therefore, 
not  only  tends  to  shew  the  continuing  settlement  of 
Weymouth  after  September,  1623,  but  it  also  estab- 
lishes the  strong  presumption  that  Boston  itself  was 
first  occupied  by  a  straggling  recluse  from  what  is 
now  called  the  village  of  Old  Spain. 

The  two  hundred  and  fifty-first  year  of  the  consecu- 
tive settlement  of  Weymouth  will,  therefore,  as  I  con- 
ceive, be  completed  during  the  month  of  September 
next;  nor  can  I  find  any  sufiicient  authority  for  the 
generally  accepted  statement  that  an  additional  body 
of  settlers  arrived  during  the  year  1624,  from  the  town 
of  the  same  name  in  England,  having  with  them  the 
Kev.  Mr.  Barnard,  who  died  here  after  a  ministration 


36  TWO    HUNDRED    AND    FIFTIETH 

of  eleven  years.^  With  the  departure  of  Captam  Rob- 
ert Gorg-es  the  Wessagusset  settlement  practically  van- 
ishes from  the  page  of  cotemporary  history,  only  to 
re-appear  again  four  years  later  in  connection  with  a 
very  famous  incident.  By  one  authority  only  during 
the  intervening  time  do  I  find  its  name  mentioned.  Mr. 
Thomas  Morton  of  Merry  Mount,  he  of  cobbler  atone- 
ment memory,  refers  to  it  as  a  place  to  which  he  had 
recourse  in  winter  "to  have  the  benefit  of  company";^ 

1 A  statement  to  this  effect  lias  crept  into  the  generally  accepted  accounts 
of  the  settlement  of  Weymouth,  on  the  high  authority  of  Prince's  Annals. 
Emery  Memorial  (p.  88).  The  entry  in  Prince  is  at  the  close  of  1824,  and 
reads  as  follows  :  —  "This  Year  comes  some  Addition  to  the  few  inhabi- 
tants of  Wessagusset,  from  Weymouth  in  England;  who  are  another  sort  of 
people  than  the  Former  {mst)  [and  on  whose  account  I  conclude  the  Town 
is  since  called  AVeymouth.]"  To  this  entry  the  compiler  appended  the  fol- 
lowing foot-note  :  "  They  have  the  Rev.  Mr.  Barnard  their  first  Non-con- 
formist Minister,  who  dies  among  them  :  But  whether  He  comes  before 
or  after  1630,  or  when  He  Dies  is  yet  unknown  [mst]  nor  do  I  anywhere 
find  the  least  Hint  of  Him,  but  in  the  Manuscript  Letters,  taken  from 
some  of  the  oldest  People  at  Weymouth."     Annals  (p.  150). 

Prince  compiled  his  work  more  than  a  century  after  the  events  here 
alleged  to  have  taken  place.  He  carefully  gives  his  authority,  as  was  his 
custom,  for  his  statement,  and  himself  discredits  it.  It  seems,  so  far  as 
the  date  was  concerned,  to  have  been  a  mere  "  oldest  inhabitant"  tradi- 
tion, which  wholly  lacked  corroboration  by  the  contemporaneous  authori- 
ties. The  party  from  Weymouth,  in  England,  settled  at  Dorchester  in 
July,  1633.  Prince;  II.  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.  (v.  7,  p.  96).  In  1685,  Massa- 
chiel  Barnard,  an  elder  not  a  minister,  came  out  with  the  party  mentioned 
by  Winthrop  and  in  the  Records  of  Massachusetts  as  being  placed  at 
Weymouth.  This  party  included  not  only  the  Rev.  Mr.  Hull,  but  the 
original  bearers  of  several  of  the  names  now  most  common  in  Weymouth, 
such  as  Bicknell,  Lovell,  Pool,  Upham,  Porter,  &c.  See  N.  E.  Gen.  Beg. 
(v.  25,  p.  13).  It  is  safe  to  say  that  the  date  of  1624  given  in  Prince  is 
wholly  erroneous.  If  the  permanent  settlement  of  Weymouth  does  not 
belong  to  1623,  no  precise  date  for  it  can  be  assigned  ;  but  I  cannot  see 
any  room  for  doubt  as  to  September,  1623. 

The  discovery,  in  1870,  of  the  names  of  those  who  came  out  with  Mr. 
Hull,  in  1635,  is  very  important  in  the  genealogy  of  Weymouth.  It  is 
singular  to  study  in  the  several  lists  of  names  which  have  at  various  times 
been  made  out,  the  fate  of  the  families  which  bore  them.  Some,  the  Kings 
and  Kingmans  for  instance,  have  never  increased,  but  are  still  perpetuated 
by  single  families  in  Weymouth ;  others  like  JefEries  and  Bursley  have  dis- 
appeared; while  yet  others,  like  the  Bicknells,  Frenches  and  Lovells  have 
increased  amazingly.  Lists  of  names  found  in  the  town  at  various  epochs 
are  printed  in  the  Appendix  to  the  Address,  with  indications  and  figures 
shewing  the  apparent  increase  or  disappearance  of  the  families. 

2  New  English  Canaan,  pp.  84,  86. 


ANNIVERSARY   ADDRESS.  37 

and  he  seems  to  have  been  npon  tolerably  familiar 
terms  with  those  living  there,  as  several  years  after  he 
wrote  to  William  Jeffries,  addressing  him  as  "  My  very 
good  gossip."  ^  These  visits  of  Morton  were  made  be- 
tween the  years  1625  and  1628.  Once  only  does  he 
refer  to  the  place  in  connection  with  any  clergyman, 
and  then  it  is  with  one  notorions  enough  in  the  early 
annals,  but  of  a  different  stripe  from  what  the  Rev. 
Mr.  Barnard  is  supposed  to  have  been.^  With  this 
single  exception,  Wessagusset,  between  1623  and  1628, 
is  referred  to  by  the  chroniclers  of  the  day  only  as 
included  in  several  weak  and  scattered  plantations. 
In  1628,  howevej',  it  again  asserted  an  existence.  It 
happened  in  this  wise.  The  year  after  Captain  Robert 
Gorges  had  retired  in  disgust,  a  certain  Captain  Wol- 
laston  had  made  his  appearance  in  Boston  Bay,  in 
company  with  several  associates,  bringing  with  him  a 
party  of  hired  people  with  a  view  to  establishing  a  per- 
manent trading  post.  He  selected,  as  best  adapted  for 
his  purpose,  the  rising  ground  over  against  Wessagusset 
to  the  north,  which  in  his  honor  was  called  Mount  Wol- 
laston,  the  name  by  which  it  has  ever  since  been  known. 
This  spot  had  some  time  previously  been  the  home  of 

1  Hubbard,  p.  428. 

2  This  was  the  Eev.  .John  Lyford.  A  detailed  account  of  the  somewhat 
high  handed  proceedings  of  the  Plymouth  authorities  in  regard  to  this 
individual  and  John  Oldham  is  found  in  Bradford's  History.  The  cere- 
monial of  Oldham's  expulsion  from  Plymouth  was  formal  but  peculiar. 
Morton  gives  the  following  account  of  it :  "A  lane  of  Musketiers  was  made, 
and  hee  compelled  in  scorne  to  passe  along  betweene,  &  to  receave  a  bob 
upon  the  bumme  be  every  musketier,  and  then  a  board  a  shallop,  and  so 
convayed  to  Wessaguscus  shoare  &  staid  at  Massachussets,  to  whome  lohn 
Layford  and  some  few  more  did  resort,  where  Master  Layford  freely  exe- 
cuted his  office  and  preached  every  Lords  day,  and  yet  maintained  his 
wife  &  children  foure  or  five,  upon  his  industry  there,  with  the  blessing  of 
God,  and  the  plenty  of  the  Land,  without  the  helps  of  his  auditory,  in  an 
honest  and  laudable  manner,  till  hee  was  wearied,  a.nd  made  to  leave  the 
Country."  Neio  English  Canaan  (p.  81);  see  also  Bradford  (p.  190).  This 
took  place  early  in  1625,  but  the  Oldham  and  Lyford  settlement  was  at 
Hull,  not  at  Wessagusset,  and  lasted  but  little  over  a  year;  note  to  Brad- 
ford (p.  195). 


38  TWO   HUNDRED   AND    FIFTIETH 

Chicatabot,  the  greatest  sagamore  of  the  neighborhood, 
by  whom  it  had  been  cleared  of  trees.^     He,  however, 
had  abandoned  it  some  eight  years  before,  at  the  time 
of  the  great  plague.     Then,  as  now,  that  portion  of  the 
bay  was  very  shallow,  so  that  ships  could  not  ride  near 
the  shore,  nor  boats  approach  it  when  the  tide  was  out. 
There  was,  however,  an  abundance   of  beaver  in  the 
vicinity,  and  here  Wollaston's  party  established  itself. 
After  a  brief  trial,  however,  Wollaston  himself  seems  to 
have  liked  the  prospect  no  better  than  Captain  Gorges, 
for  he  departed  for  Yirginia  with  a  portion  of  his  com- 
pany, leaving  the  remainder  behind  in  charge  of  a  Mr. 
Rassdall,  one  of  his  partners.     Presently  he  summoned 
Rassdall  to  follow  him  with  yet  others  of  the  party, 
and  one  Mr.  Fitcher  was  left  in  command  of  the  re- 
mainder.   Among  these  was  Mr.  Thomas  Morton.    This 
individual  had  a  very  well  developed  talent  for  mischief, 
which  speedily  found  room  for  exercise  at  the  expense 
of  Lieutenant  Fitcher,  who  was  deposed  from  his  com- 
mand, expelled  from  the  settlement  and  left  to  shift  for 
himself  with  the  aid  of  the  neighboring  settlers.     Then 
Mount  Wollaston  became  Merry  Mount,  with  Thomas 
Morton  for  its  presiding  genius.    According  to  all  show- 
ing they  seem  to  have  been   a  drunken,  dissolute  set, 
trading  with  the  savages  for  beaver-skins,  holding  very 
questionable  relations  with  the  Indian  women,  and  gen- 
erally leading  a  wild,  reckless  existence  on  the  bleak 
and  well-nigh  uninhabited  Kew  England  shore.     Their 
house  stood  very  near  the  present  dwelling  of  Mr.  John 
Q.  Adams,   and   they  scandalized  the  whole  coast  by 
erecting  near  it  a  May-pole,  which  Morton  describes  as 
having  been  some  eighty  feet  in  height,  with  a  pair  of 
buckhorns  nailed  to  the  top.     Upon  this  pole  the  retired 
barrister  seems  to  have  been  in  the  custom  of  fastening 
copies  of  verses  of  his  own  production,  while  he  and 

1  Wood's  jSTew-England's  Prospect;  Young's  Cluon.  of  Mass.,  p.  395. 


ANNIVERSARY   ADDRESS.  39 

his  companions  conducted  noisy  revels  about  it.  All 
this  was  bad  enough  and  sufficiently  well  calculated  to 
stir  the  gall  of  the  severe  elders  of  Plymouth.  But  the 
mischief  did  not  stop  here.  The  business  of  this  pre- 
cious company,  in  the  intervals  of  merriment,  was  to 
trade;  and  in  conducting  their  business  they  were  by 
no  means  scrupulous.  Liquor,  fire-arms  and  ammuni- 
tion were  freely  exchanged  for  furs,  and  the  unsophis- 
ticated savage  evinced  a  decided  appreciation  of  the 
first  and  a  dangerous  aptitude  in  the  use  of  the  last. 
Thus  the  solitary  settlers  about  Boston  harbor  soon 
found  themselves  in  danger  of  their  lives,  as  they  espied 
armed  Indians  prowling  about  their  habitations.  The 
trade,  however,  was  so  profitable  that  Morton,  regard- 
less of  consequences,  was  preparing  to  develop  it  on  a 
larger  scale  when  his  neighbors  met  together  and  took 
counsel  one  with  another.  The  Mount  Wollaston  set- 
tlement was,  indeed,  the  first  recorded  instance  of  what 
in  later  Massachusetts  history  is  technically  known  as 
"  a  liquor  nuisance,"  and  the  neighbors  determined  that 
considerations  of  public  safety  required  that  it  should 
be  abated.  Those  were  primitive  times.  They  en- 
joyed few  of  the  advantages  of  our  more  developed 
civilization,  and  while  there  were  no  ladies  of  the  vicin- 
age to  wait  upon  the  then  lord  of  Merry  Mount  in  a 
spirit  of  prayerful  remonstrance,  there  was  also  no  State 
constabulary  before  whom  the  "rumseller"  trembled 
and  fled.  As  the  best  substitute  for  these  moral  and 
legal  agencies,  and  after  fruitless  efforts  at  reform 
through  written  admonishments  which  the  carnal  Mor- 
ton received  in  a  most  unsatisfactory  spirit  of  con- 
tumely, the  men  of  the  vicinage  called  upon  the  fathers 
of  Plymouth.^  These  at  once  despatched  the  redoubt- 
able Miles  Standish  to  the  scene  of  trouble,  with  direc- 
tions to  set  matters  to  rights  there  once  more,  even  as 

1  Bradford's  Letter  Book;  I.  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  v.  3,  p.  61. 


40  TWO   HUNDRED   AND   FIFTIETH 

he  had  done  five  years  before  in  the  days  of  Pecksuot. 
Weymouth  was  the  scene  of  a  portion  of  the  succeed- 
ing operations,  which  were  of  a  nature  too  dehghtfully 
humorous  to  be  told  in  any  language  except  that  of 
the  actors  and  of  the  time;  besides  the  accounts  fur- 
nish a  very  beautiful  illustration  of  the  discrepancies 
in  authority  which  it  becomes  the  painful  duty  of  the 
historian  to  reconcile.  And  first,  Thomas  Morton  shall 
tell  his  own  story: 

"  They  set  upon  my  honest  host  [Morton]  at  a  place, 
called  Wessaguscus,  where  (by  accident)  they  found 
him.  The  inhabitants  there  were  in  good  hope,  of  the 
subvertion  of  the  plantation  at  Mare  Mount  (which 
they  principally  aymed  at) ;  and  the  rather,  because 
mine  host  was  a  man  that  indeavoured  to  advance  the 
dignity  of  the  Church  of  England ;  which  they  (on  the 
contrary  part)  would  laboure  to  vilifie;  with  uncivile 
terms:  enveying  against  the  sacred  booke  of  common 
prayer,  and  mine  host  [Morton]  that  used  it  in  a 
laudable  manner  amongst  his  family,  as  a  practise  of 
piety 

"In  briefe,  mine  host  [Morton]  must  indure  to  be 
their  prisoner,  untill  they  could  contrive  it  so,  that  they 
might  send  him  for  England  (as  they  said),  there  to 
suifer  according  to  the  merrit  of  the  fact,  which  they 
intended  to  father  upon  him 

"Much  rejoycing  was  made  that  they  had  gotten 
their  cappitall  enemy,  .  .  .  .  The  Conspirators  sported 
themselves  at  my  honest  host  [Morton],  that  meant 
them  no  hurt;  and  were  so  joccund  that  they  feasted 
their  bodies,  and  fell  to  tippeling,  as  if  they  had  ob- 
tained a  great  prize;  ....  Mine  host  [Morton]  fained 
greefe:  and  could  not  be  perswaded  either  to  eate,  or 
drinke,  because  hee  knew  emptines  would  be  a  meanes 
to   make   him  as  watchfull   as  the  Geese  kept  in  the 


ANNIVERSARY   ADDRESS.  41 

Roman  Cappitall :  whereon  the  contrary  part,  the  con- 
spirators would  be  so  drowsy  that  hee  might  have  an 
opportunity  to  give  them  a  slip,  instead  of  a  tester. 
Six  persons  of  the  conspiracy  were  set  to  watch  him  at 
Wessaguscus:  But  hee  kept  waking;  and  in  the  dead 
of  night  (one  lying  on  the  bed,  for  further  suerty,)  up 
gets  mine  Host  [Morton]  and  got  to  the  second  dore 
that  hee  was  to  passe  which  (notwithstanding  the  lock) 
hee  got  open :  and  shut  it  after  him  with  such  violence, 
that  it  affrighted  some  of  the  conspirators. 

"The  word  which  was  given  with  an  alarme,  was, 
o  he  's  gon,  he  's  gon,  what  shall  we  doe,  he  's  gon  ? 
the  rest  (halfe  a  sleepe)  start  up  in  a  maze,  and  like 
rames,  ran  theire  heads  one  at  another  full  butt  in  the 
darke. 

"  Their  grand  leader  Captaine  Shrimp  [Standish] 
tooke  on  most  furiously,  and  tore  his  clothes  for  anger, 
to  see  the  empty  nest,  and  their  bird  gone.  The  rest 
were  eager  to  have  torne  theire  haire  from  theire  heads, 
but  it  was  so  short,  that  it  would  give  them  no  hold : 
....  In  the  meane  time  mine  Host  [Morton]  was  got 
home  to  Ma-re  Mount  through  the  woods,  eight  miles, 
round  about  the  head  of  the  river  Monatoquit,  that 
parted  the  two  Plantations:  finding  his  way  by  the 
help  of  the  lightening  (for  it  thundered  as  he  went 
terribly) 

"  N^ow  Captaine  Shrimp  [Standish]  ....  takes  eight 
persons  more  to  him,  and  they  imbarque  with  prepara- 
tion against  Ma-re-Mount ....  ISTow  the  nine  Worthies 
are  approached;  and  mine  Host  [Morton]  prepared: 
having  intelligence  by  a  Salvage,  that  hastened  in  love 
from  Wessaguscus  to  give  him  notice  of  their  intent. 
....  The  nine  Worthies  comming  before  the  Denne 
of  this  supposed  Monster,  (this  seaven  headed  hydra, 
as  they  termed  him)  and  began  like  Don  Quixote 
against  the  Windmill   to  beate   a  parly,  and  to  offer 


42  TWO   HUNDRED  AND   FIFTIETH 

quarter   (if  mine  Host   [Morton]   wonld   yeald) 

Yet  to  save  the  effusion  of  so  much  worthy  bloud,  as 
would  have  issued  out  of  the  vaynes  of  these  9.  wor- 
thies of  'New  Canaan,  if  mine  Host  should  have  played 
upon  them  out  at  his  port  holes  (for  they  came  within 
danger  like  a  flocke  of  wild  geese,  as  if  they  had  bin 
tayled  one  to  another,  as  coults  to  be  sold  at  a  faire) 
mine  Host  [Morton]  was  content  to  yeelde  upon  quar- 
ter; and  did  capitulate  with  them:  ....  But  mine 
Host  [Morton]  no  sooner  had  set  open  the  dore  and 
issued  out:  but  instantly  Captaine  Shrimpe  [Standish], 
and  the  rest  of  the  worties  stepped  to  him,  layd  hold 
of  his  armes ;  and  had  him  downe,  and  so  eagerly  was 
every  man  bent  against  him  (not  regarding  any  agree- 
ment made  with  such  a  carnall  man)  that  they  fell 
upon  him,  as  if  they  would  have  eaten  him :  .  .  .  . 

"  Captaine  Shrimpe  [Standish]  and  the  rest  of  the 
nine  worthies,  made  themselves  (by  this  outragious 
riot)  Masters  of  mine  Hoste  [Morton]  of  Ma-re  Mount, 
and  disposed  of  what  hee  had  at  his  plantation."^ 

So  much  for  Mr.  Thomas  Morton's  account  of  this 
"outragious  riot;"  now  let  us  see  what  Captain  Stan- 
dish had  to  say  of  the  affair: 

"  So  they  resolved  to  take  Morton  by  force.  The 
which  accordingly  was  done;  but  they  found  him  to 
stand  stilly  in  his  defence,  having  made  fast  his  dors, 
armed  his  consorts,  set  diverse  dishes  of  powder  & 
bullets  ready  on  y®  table;  and  if  they  had  not  been 
over  armed  with  drinke,  more  hurt  might  have  been 
done.  They  somaned  him  to  yeeld,  but  he  kept  his 
house,  and  they  could  gett  nothing  but  scofes  &  scorns 
from  him;  but  at  length,  fearing  they  would  doe  some 
violence  to  y®  house,  he  and  some  of  his  crue  came  out, 

1  New  English  Canaan,  p.  93, 


ANNIVERSARY  ADDRESS.  43 

but  not  to  yeeld,  but  to  shoote ;  but  they  were  so  steeld 
with  drinke  as  their  peeces  were  too  heavie  for  them; 
him  selfe  with  a  carbine  (over  charged  &  allmost  halfe 
fild  with  powder  &  shote,  as  was  after  found)  had 
thought  to  have  shot  Captaine  Standish;  but  he  stept 
to  him,  &;  put  by  his  peece,  &  tooke  him.  N^either  was 
ther  any  hurte  done  to  any  of  either  side,  save  y*  one 
was  so  drunke  y*  he  rane  his  own  nose  upon  y®  pointe 
of  a  sword  y*  one  held  before  him  as  he  entred  y®  house ; 
but  he  lost  but  a  litle  of  his  hott  blood."  ^ 

Whichever  of  these  widely  divergent  accounts  is  the 
more  correct,  upon  one  point  they  both  concur,  and 
that  is,  after  all,  the  vital  point,  that  Morton  was  ar- 
rested, carried  to  Plymouth  and  presently  sent  to 
England  ;  while  the  Wollaston  settlement  was  prac- 
tically broken  up,  the  liquor  nuisance  abated,  and  the 
trade  in  firearms  and  ammunition  stopped.  Peace  and 
security  were  thus  once  more  restored  to  Wessagusset, 
through  the  agency  of  Miles  Standish.  I^or  were  these 
blessings  won  at  any  unreasonable  price,  as  the  whole 
cost  of  the  expedition  was  computed  at  £12  7s.,  of 
which  sum  £2  was  assessed  on  the  settlers  at  Wessa- 
gusset, and  £2  10s.  on  the  Plymouth  colony.^ 

1  Bradford,  p.  241. 

2  This  apportionment  is  derived  from  Governor  Bradford's  Letter-Book. 
See  I.  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.  (v.  3,  p.  63).  In  his  History  (p.  241)  he  speaks 
of  "  Weesagascusett "  as  being  one  of  the  plantations  concerned,  but  the 
apportionment  is  made  as  "From  Mr.  Jeffrey  and  Mr.  Bnrslem."  These 
names  have  given  the  antiquarians  a  great  deal  of  trouble,  and  they  have 
generally  assigned  them  to  Cape  Ann;  Savage'' s  Winthrop  (v.  1,  p.  44,  n.); 
Young's  Chron.  of  Mass.  (p.  171,  n.),  or  even  to  the  Isle  of  Shoals;  Brake's 
Boston  (p.  50).  They  all  confound  William  Jeffries  of  Weymouth  -with 
Thomas  Jeffrey  of  Ipswich.  Dr.  Young  does  this  in  a  most  extraordinary 
manner,  confusing  them  even  while  giving  the  correct  name  of  one  in  his 
text,  and  of  the  other  in  the  running  title  of  the  same  page.  Chron.  of 
Mass.  (p.  171).  When  Savage  prepared  his  notes  to  Winthrop  the  MS.  of 
Bradford  had  not  been  recovered,  and  he  had  not  examined  the  New 
English  Canaan  carefully  in  reference  to  Weymouth.  He  seems  to  have 
been  satisfied  that  the  second  settlement  at  Weymouth  had  been  wholly 
broken  up  in  1624,  Notes  to  Winthrop  (pp.  43,  93),  and  sought  to  place 


44  TWO    HUNDRED   AND   FIFTIETH 

The  destruction  of  the  May-pole  at  Merry  Mount 
took  place  in  the  early  days  of  June,  1628,  and  just 
two  years  later  Governor  Winthrop  arrived  in  Boston 
harbor  and  the  consecutive  annals  of  the  Massachusetts 
Bay  began.  It  is  yet  another  two  years,  however, 
before  we  again  meet  with  a  mention  of  Weymouth, 
still  under  its  Indian  name.  In  August,  1632,  Gov- 
ernor Winthrop,  in  company  with  the  Rev.  Mr.  Wilson 
and  other  notables,  took  ship  at  Boston  and  landed  at 
Wessagusset;  and  thence  the  succeeding  day  the  dis- 
tinguished party  started  on  foot  for  Plymouth,  com- 
pleting their  journey  by  night.  Six  days  later,  on  the 
31st  of  the  same  month,  they  returned;  leaving  Ply- 
mouth at  five  in  the  morning  and  reaching  Wessagus- 
set  in  the  evening,  where  they  passed  the  night,  and 
finished  their  journey  next  morning  by  water .^  We 
have  Governor  Winthrop's  authority  for  the  assertion 
that,  both  going  and  returning,  they  were  here  most 
hospitably  feasted  on  the  turkeys,  geese  and  ducks  of 
the  neighborhood.^  Two  years  later  again  Wessagus- 
set  was  summoned  by  the  General  Court  to  assume 
charge  of  one  of  its  pauper  inhabitants,  who  had  seen 

Jeffries  and  Burslem  elsewhere.  There  cannot  be  the  slightest  doubt  that 
they  lived  at  Wessagusset  from  before  1628.  Both  names  are  now  extinct 
at  Weymouth,  though  I  find  in  the  Records  of  the  town  a  JefEery  in  1651 
(see  p.  70),  and  also  a  mention  of  one  John  Jeffers  (Aug.  18,  1777),  as  a 
soldier  who  enlisted  in  Arnold's  Canada  campaign  during  the  Revolution. 
Both  were  made  freemen  at  early  dates:  —  Burslem  was  a  deputy  from  the 
town  in  1636,  and  it  was  to  Jeffries  that  Morton  wrote  as  to  his  "good 
o-ossip,"  in  1634.  It  was  to  him  and  to  Blackstone  that  John  Gorges  wrote 
in  1029,  in  regard  to  putting  Oldham  in  possession  of  the  Gorges  grant. 
Younrfs  Ghron.  of  Mass.  (pp.  51,  147,  169). 

1  Savage's  Winthrop,  v.  1,  p.  192. 

2 In  1633  Wessagusset  was  thus  described  :  "This  as  yet  is  but  a  small 
village;  yet  it  is  very  pleasant,  and  healthful,  very  good  ground,  and  is 
well  timbered,  and  hath  good  store  of  hay-ground.  It  hath  a  very  spa- 
cious harbour  for  shipping  before  the  town,  the  salt  water  being  navigable 
for  boats  and  pinnaces  two  leagues.  Here  the  inhabitants  have  good  store 
of  fish  of  all  sorts,  and  swine,  having  acorns  and  clams  at  the  time  of  year. 
Hero  is  likewise  an  ale-wifo  river."  Wood's  Neio-England's  Prospect; 
Younrfs  Chron.  of  Mass.  (p.  394). 


ANNIVERSARY   ADDRESS.  45 

fit  to  fall  ill  at  Dorchester;^  and  in  1635  the  Court 
established  a  commission  to  fix  the  boundary  line  be- 
tween what  are  now  Braintree  and  Weymouth, —  then 
Mt.  Wollaston  and  Wessagusset.  Thus  through  eleven 
years,  from  1624  to  1635,  the  early  settlers  of  Wey- 
mouth only  occasionally  emerge  from  the  oblivion  of 
the  past  and  are  dimly  shadowed  on  the  mirror  of  'New 
England  history.  But  now,  at  last,  in  the  year  1635, 
Wessagusset  was  by  the  order  of  the  General  Court 
made  a  plantation  under  the  name  of  Weymouth,  and 
the  Rev.  Mr.  Hull,  with  twenty-one  families  from  En- 
gland, were  allowed  to  establish  themselves  here.^ 
Why  the  name  of  Weymouth  was  adopted  I  do  not 
find  recorded:  it  may  well  have  been  that  the  Rev.  Mr. 
Hull  and  his  party  came  from  that  place  in  the  old 
country,  but  there  does  not  appear  to  be  any  ground 
for  asserting  such  to  have  been  the  fact.^  With  Mr. 
Hull,  however,  began  the  long  succession  of  clergymen 
who  ministered  to  the  old  first  parish,  of  whom  the 
present  incumbent  is  the  thirteenth.  In  the  earlier 
days  of  New  England  the  pastorates  marked  epochs  in 
the  history  of  the  towns,  much  as  do  the  reigns  of 
kings  and  queens  in  European  annals.  ]S[or  indeed 
were  certain  of  the  Weymouth  pastorates  brief  in  point 
of  time,  for  two  of  them  covered  the  long  period  of 
one  entire  century. 

To  return,  however,  to  the  political  history  of  the 
town ;  in  the  same  year  (1635)  in  which  it  was  created 
a  plantation,  Weymouth  was  also  authorized  to  send  a 
deputy  to  the  General  Court.  The  next  year  three 
deputies  made  their  appearance  instead  of  one;  but, 
considering  the  size  of  the  place  they  represented,  the 

^This  man  is  mentioned  as  "late  servant  of  John  Burslyn."  Records  of 
Mass.  (p.  121). 

2 Savage's  Winthrop,  v.  1,  p.  163  ;  Records  of  Mass.,  pp.  156-7. 
3  Proceedings  of  Mass.  Hist.  Soc,  1873,  p.  396. 


46  TWO    HUNDKED   AND   FIFTIETH 

delegation  with  becoming  modesty  requested  that  two 
of  their  number  might  be  dismissed,  and  accordingly 
Messrs.  Bursley  and  Upham  received  leave  to  with- 
draw.^ From  that  time  forward,  through  a  space  of 
one  hundred  and  thb'ty  years,  the  political  history  of 
Weymouth  moved  uneventfully  along,  —  a  portion  of 
that  of  the  Province,  —  rendered  noticeable  only  by 
some  question  of  boundaries,  by  fines  imposed  because 
of  the  badness  of  highways  or  the  insufficiency  of  the 
watch-house  or  carelessness  in  checking  the  roving 
propensities  of  swine,  or  by  the  division  of  a  whale 
found  stranded  on  its  shore,  or  some  other  equally 
trifling  incident  of  municipal  government.  The  tax- 
collector  made  his  annual  visits,  and  his  records  seem 
to  show  that,  as  compared  with  others,  the  town  during 
its  earlier  years  was  neither  populous  nor  wealthy. 
Its  proportion  was  in  the  neighborhood  of  one-fiftieth 
part  of  the  whole  amount  levied  on  the  colony,  ranging 
from  £4:  to  £10  each  year;  but  in  1637  came  the 
Pequod  War,  and  during  that  year  Weymouth  was 
assessed  for  £27  in  a  total  levy  of  £1,500.  The  town 
could  not  even  then  be  said  to  rank  high  on  the 
assessors'  books,  being  thirteenth  in  a  list  of  four- 
teen. 

As  respects  population  during  the  first  half  century  of 
the  existence  of  Weymouth,  there  is  small  material  on 
which  to  form  an  estimate.  In  1637  a  levy  of  one  hun- 
dred and  sixty  men  was  made  to  carry  on  the  Pequod 
War;  of  these  Weymouth  furnished  five  as  her  con- 
tingent. Under  the  system  of  computation  adopted  by 
the  highest  authority,^  this  would  indicate  a  total  of 
about  five  hundred  souls,  which  I  am  inclined  to  think 
was  not  far  from  the  true  number.  During  the  next 
century  and  a  quarter  the  increase  was  very  slow,  so 

1  Records  of  Mass.,  v.  1,  p.  179. 

2  Palfrey,  v.  2,  p.  5. 


ANNIVERSARY   ADDRESS.  47 

that  in  1776  the  population  but  little  exceeded  1,400;^ 
indeed,  it  may  be  said  that  during  the  century  and  a 
half  which  succeeded  the  Pequod  War  the  increase  of 
the  town  in  numbers  scarcely  exceeded  one-half  of  one 
per  cent,  a  year.  To  the  Weymouth  of  to-day, —  with 
its  po]3ulation  of  10,000  souls, — 1,400,  and  much  less 
500,  seems  a  somewhat  sparse  settlement.  It  did  not 
so  impress  the  first  inhabitants.  On  the  contrary,  in 
1642  the  townspeople  of  those  days  thought  them- 
selves so  numerous  as  to  render  expedient  the  removal 
of  a  portion  of  their  number  to  a  new  settlement.  This 
was  accordingly  determined  on,  and  the  Kev.  Mr.  New- 
man, the  clergyman  of  the  time,  to  prevent  all  dispute, 
offered  either  to  go  or  to  remain  as  his  parishioners 
should  decide.  A  vote  was  taken,  which  resulted  in 
favor  of  the  removing  party ;  with  them,  therefore,  he 
cast  in  his  lot  at  the  place  selected  for  their  settle- 
ment, to  which  the  pastor  gave  the  name  of  Rehoboth, 
which  it  still  bears.  In  later  years  other  and  larger 
migrations  took  place,  first  to  Easton  and  subsequently 
to  Abington,  thus  accounting  for  the  slow  movement 
of  population  in  the  mother  town,  which,  indeed,  be- 
tween 1740  and  1780  rather  tended  to  diminish  than 
to  increase.  This  condition  of  affairs,  however,  in  no 
way  disturbed  the  inhabitants.  On  the  contrary,  four 
years  after  the  Rehoboth  secession,  the  town  records 
under  the  date  of  April  6,  1646,  contain  this  singular 
entry,  with  the  significant  words  "  Stand  Good,"  writ- 
ten against  it  in  the  margin: 

1  See  the  sketch  of  the  town  of  Weymouth,  written  by  Dr.  Cotton  Tufts, 
and  printed  in  1785  in  Toi^ographical  Descriptions  of  the  Toions  in  the 
County  of  Suffolk,  and  of  Charlestovm  in  the  County  of  Middlesex.  A  man- 
uscript copy  of  this  sketch  was  very  kindly  placed  at  my  disposal  in  the 
preparation  of  this  address  by  J.  J.  Loud,  Esq.,  of  Weymouth,  with  other 
material  for  a  history  of  Weymouth,  which  it  is  to  be  regretted  Mr.  Loud 
does  not  himself  propose  to  prepare.  A  copy  of  the  compilation  of  which 
Cotton  Tufts'  sketch  was  a  part  is  in  the  library  of  the  Massachusetts  His- 
torical Society,  bound  with  other  documents  under  the  title  of  "  Gookin 
and  Geography.''^ 


48  TWO   HUNDRED   AND   FIFTIETH 

"  Whereas  we  find  b}^  sad  experience  the  great  incon- 
venience that  many  times  it  comes  to  pass  by  the 
permitting  of  strangers  to  come  into  the  plantation 
l)retending  only  to  sojourn  for  a  season,  but  afterwards 
they  have  continued  a  while  account  themselves  inhab- 
itants with  us,  and  so  challeng  to  themselves  all  such 
priviledges  and  immunitys  as  others  do  enjoy,  who 
notwithstanding  are  of  little  use  to  advance  the  public 
good,  but  rather  many  times  are  troublesome  and  prove 
a  burden  to  the  plantation,  the  premises  considered, 
together  with  the  straightness  of  the  place,  the  num- 
ber of  the  people,  and  the  smallness  of  the  trade  we 
yet  have  amongst  us,  we  the  townsmen  whose  names 
are  subscribed  for  the  prevention  of  this  and  the  like 
inconveniencys,  have  thought  good  to  present  to  con- 
sideration the  insuing  order  to  be  voted  by  the  whole 
Towne  to  stande  in  force  as  long  as  they  in  wisdome 
shall  see  just  cause. 

"  First  that  no  inhabitant  within  this  plantation  shall 
presume  to  take  into  his  house  as  an  inmate,  or  servant, 
any  person  or  persons,  unless  he  shall  give  sufficient 
bonds,  to  defray  the  plantation  of  what  damage  may 
ensue  thereuppon,  or  be  as  covenant  servant,  and  that 
for  one  year  at  the  least  without  leave  first  had  and 
obtayned  from  the  whole  Towne  at  some  of  their  public 
meetings,  under  the  penalty  of  5  shillings  a  week  as 
long  as  hee  shall  continue  in  the  breach  of  this  order, 
to  be  levied  by  the  constable  or  other  officer,  and  de- 
livered to  the  townsmen  for  the  time  being,  to  be  im- 
proved for  the  use  and  benefit  of  the  towne.  Also 
it  is  further  agreed  upon  by  and  with  the  consent  of 
the  whole  towne  that  no  person  or  persons  within  this 
plantation  shall  lett  or  sell  any  house,  or  land,  to  any 
person  or  persons  that  is  not  an  inhabitant  amongst  us, 
untill  he  hath  first  made  a  tender  of  it  to  the  Towne, 


ANNIVERSARY   ADDRESS.  49 

at    a   trayning  or  some   lecture    day  or   other  public 
meeting." 

And  to  show  that  this  was  not  a  mere  empty  threat, 
it  is  but  necessary  to  turn  to  this  other  record  of 
thirty-eight  years  later,  April  30th,  1684: 

"  At  a  Meeting  of  the  Selectmen  they  passed  a  war- 
rant to  the  Constable  John  Pratt  as  f olloweth :  — 

"  To  the  Constable  of  Weymouth 

"You  are  hereby  required  in  his  Majestys  name  forth- 
with to  distrain  upon  the  Estate  of  Josej)h  Poole  to  the 
value  of  five  shillings  which  is  for  the  breach  of  town 
order  for  entertaining  of  Sarah  Downing  one  week 
contrary  to  town  order,  and  so  from  week  to  week  as 
long  as  the  said  Joseph  Poole  shall  entertaine  the  said 
Sarah  Downing. 

"  Dated  Aprill  30*^  1684.  Signed  in  the  name  and 
by  the  order  of  the  Selectmen. 

"  Samuel  White."  ^ 

I^ot  unnaturally,  therefore,  with  continual  migrations 
of  its  people  taking  place,  and  with  the  advent  of  new 
population  sternly  discouraged,  the  growth  of  Wey- 
mouth was  slow.  J^evertheless,  groAV  it  did,  and  it 
prospered.  I  have  spoken  of  the  long  interval  of  one 
hundred  and  twenty-five  years  between  1640  and  1765, 
an  interval  which  includes  one-half  of  the  entire  his- 
tory of  the  town,  as  a  single  period.  As  such  it  can 
best  be  treated,  for  with  Weymouth,  as  with  most  other 
Kew  England  towns,  it  was  the  time  of  slow  growth, 
the  long  period  of  infancy.  It  was  marked  by  few 
events  of  importance.  In  1676  the  terror  of  King 
Philip's  war  swept  over  Weymouth,  as  it  did  over  all 

^See,  also,  a  similai"  order  of  January  1,  1685. 


50  TWO   HUNDRED   AND   FIFTIETH 

the  other  outlying  settlements  of  the  colony.  That 
was  by  far  the  most  cruel  ordeal  through  which  Massa- 
chusetts has  ever  passed, —  one,  of  the  deep  agony  of 
which  it  is  not  easy  for  us,  removed  from  it  by  two 
hundred  years  of  time,  to  form  even  a  dim  concej^tion. 
I  shall  not  pause  to  dilate  upon  it  here,  though,  in  a 
far  less  degree  it  is  true  than  many  of  her  sister  set- 
tlements, Weymouth  then  tasted  the  horrors  of  savage 
warfare.  Women  were  slaughtered  and  houses  were 
burned  within  her  limits,  and  the  losses  she  sustained 
Avere  sufficiently  severe  to  induce  the  General  Court  to 
allow  the  abatement  of  a  portion  of  her  tax.  Again 
she  was  called  upon  to  furnish  her  contingent  of  sol- 
diers, who  doubtless  plaj^ed  their  part  manfully  enough 
at  the  storming  of  ^N^arragansett  Fort.^  Indeed,  in 
every  warlike  ordeal  through  which  Massachusetts  has 
been  called  to  pass, —  from  the  first  struggle  of  Miles 
Standish,  in  1624,  to  the  great  rebellion,  two  hundred 
and  forty  years  later, —  the  ancient  town  may  fairly 
claim  that  she  has  contributed  of  her  blood  with  no 
stinting  hand. 

But  the  war  of  King  Philip  was  ended,  and  again 
Weymouth  lapsed  into  the  old,  quiet,  steady,  unevent- 
ful life.  During  the  next  ninety  years  I  doubt  if  any- 
thing more  momentous  occurred  within  her  limits  than 
the  burning  of  the  town  meeting-house,  in  1751.  That, 
however,  was  a  very  remarkable  year, —  one  still  borne 
in  painful  recollection, — the  saddest  in  the  whole  his- 
tory of  Weymouth.  It  has  indeed  left  its  mark  on  the 
records,  where,  under  date  of  May  21st,  1752,  in  the 
town  meeting  that  day  held,  it  was  — 

"  Voted  to  send  no  representative  this  present  year 
on  account  of  the  great  charge  of  building  a  Meeting- 

2  There  were  thirteen  Weymouth  men  in  Captain  Johnson's  company 
employed  against  the  Indians  in  October,  1675.     Vinton  Memorial  (p.  50,  n.). 


ANNIVERSARY   ADDRESS.  51 

house,  and  the  extraordinary  Sickness  that  has  ]3re- 
vailed  in  the  town  in  the  year  past." 

The  meeting-house  was  burned  on  the  23d  of  April, 
and  its  destruction  was  impressed  on  the  recollection 
of  those  living  in  the  vicinity  by  a  special  circumstance. 
The  fathers  of  the  town  had  seen  fit  to  utihze  the  loft 
over  the  church  as  a  magazine,  and  in  it  was  stored  the 
supply  of  town  powder  to  the  very  respectable  amount 
of  three  barrels.  ]N^aturally,  at  the  proper  moment, 
this  brought  the  conflagration  to  a  crisis,  making,  as 
Parson  Smith,  the  clergyman  of  the  period,  has  record- 
ed, "  a  surprising  noise  when  it  blew  up."  The  event 
has  also  been  celebrated  in  contemporaneous  verse  by 
Paul  Torrey,  the  village  Milton: 

Our  powder  stock,  kept  under  lock, 

With  flints  and  bullets  were, 
By  dismal  blast  soon  swiftly  cast 

Into  the  open  air. 

The  poet  also  intimates  grave  suspicions  as  to  the 
origin  of  the  fire,  and  indeed  hints  at  a  personal  knowl- 
edge of  the  incendiaries,  suggesting  very  radical  meas- 
ures for  their  destruction  and  extirpation : 

O  range  and  search  in  every  arch, 

And  cellar  round  about; 
Search  low  and  high,  with  hue  and  cry. 

To  find  those  rebels  out. 

I'm  satisfy 'd  they  do  reside, 

Some  where  within  the  ToAvn; 
Therefore  no  doubt,  you'll  find  them  out, 

By  searching  up  and  down. 

On  trial  them  we  will  condemn, 

The  sentence  we  will  give; 
Them  execute  without  dispute, 

Not  being  fit  to  live.^ 

iPaul  Torrey's  curious  efforts  at  versification  were  printed  in  1811,  in 
the  api>endix  to  a  discourse  of  the  Rev.  Jacob  Norton.  The  author  tells 
us  that  they  were  designed  "to  preserve  the  memory  of  these  remarkable 
things  to  future  posterity." 


52  TWO   HtTNDRED   AND   FIFTIETH 

History  does  not  record  any  satisfactory  result  as 
attending  the  j^oet's  search,  but  in  the  succeeding  year 
he  was  tuning  his  lyre  to  sing  the  dedication  of  a  new 
and  more  commodious  edifice,  erected  in  place  of  that 
which  had  been  destroyed.  But  the  other  disaster 
which  made  memorable  the  year  1751  was  far  more 
terrible  than  the  destruction  of  any  building  the  work 
of  human  hands.  That  year  was  marked  by  a  veritable 
slaughter  of  the  innocents.  Death  stalked  through 
the  town.  Between  May,  1751,  and  May,  1752,  a  ter- 
rible throat  distemper  so  raged  among  the  children  as 
to  amount  almost  to  a  pestilence.  In  October,  1751, 
alone,  thirty  died,  and  in  all  there  perished  some  one 
hundred  and  twenty.  Out  of  a  population  of  only 
twelve  hundred,  no  less  than  one  hundred  and  fifty 
persons  died  in  the  town  during  that  twelvemonth.^ 
Daring  the  succeeding  year  the  disease  gradually  dis- 
appeared, and  has  since  been  almost  unknown  in  Wey- 
mouth. Rarely, '  indeed,  however,  even  in  times  of 
plague,  has  the  death-rate  exceeded  that  of  Weymouth 
in  1751-2. 

Broken  here  and  there  by  such  episodes  as  these, 
the  life  of  the  little  settlement  flowed  on  in  the  gen- 
eral even  tenor  of  its  way  through  the  lives  of  four 
generations  of  its  children.  It  was  an  existence  which 
we  now  find  it  difficult  to  picture.  Living  as  we  do  in 
the  .  hurry  and  bustle  of  the  modern  world, —  having 
the  record  of  human  life  in  both  hemispheres  daily 
spread  before  us, —  moving  with  ease  over  two  conti- 
nents,—  in  the  neighborhood  of  cities  and  libraries  and 
galleries  and  theatres, —  belonging  to  a  civilization  en- 
riched with  all  the  accumulated  wealth  of  centuries, — 
accustomed  ourselves  to  large  affairs  and  dealing  in 
millions  where  in  the   olden  time  they  talked  but  of 

1  Sketch  of  Weymoutli,  by  Dr.  Cotton  Tufts.  The  usual  death-rate  was 
sixteen  a  year. 


ANNIYETtSARY   ADDRESS.  53 

thousands, —  we,  in  the  year  1874,  can  hardly  stand 
here,  and,  looting  around  from  King-Oak  Hill,  picture 
to  ourselves  the  life  led  in  its  neighborhood  a  century 
and  a  half  ago.  To  the  intense  lover  of  nature,  it  is 
true,  Weymouth  probably  then  bore  a  more  attractive 
aspect  than  now  it  does,  for  nature  had  lavished  its 
gifts  upon  it  with  no  sparing  hand.  Eastward  the 
green  islands  studded  the  bay,  round  which  the  sea 
sparkled  with  waters  rarely  vexed  by  the  keel  and 
never  beaten  by  the  paddle, —  to  the  north  the  town  of 
Boston  was  hidden  from  sight  as  it  nestled  at  the  feet 
of  its  hills, —  to  the  west  the  Blue  Hills  loomed  up  in 
their  soft,  misty  beauty  even  as  they  do  to-day,  they 
alone  unchanged, —  to  the  south  stretched  away  the 
more  level  forest  land  in  which  the  beautiful  Wey- 
mouth ponds  lay  quietly  imbedded  in  their  native  frame- 
work of  virgin  green,  while  around  their  shores  the 
wolf  still  lurked  and  the  swift  deer  bounded.  'No  long 
rows  of  piles  then  broke  the  swift  tide  as  it  ebbed  and 
flowed  in  the  Fore  River, —  no  tall  chimneys  belched 
out  black  smoke  on  the  eastern  limit  of  the  town, — 
no  phosphate  factory  at  the  foot  of  the  Great  Hill 
poisoned  the  sweet  native  atmosphere,  but  the  waves 
rippled  on  the  beach,  and  rose  and  fell  amid  the  haunts 
of  the  seal  and  the  sea-fowl,  even  as  they  did  when 
Thomas  Morton  of  Merry  Mount  thus  described  the 
land:  "And  when  I  had  more  seriously  considered  of 
the  bewty  of  the  place,  with  all  her  faire  indowments, 
I  did  not  thinke  that  in  all  the  knowne  world  it  could 
be  paralel'd.  For  so  many  goodly  groues  of  trees; 
dainty  fine  round  rising  hillucks:  delicate  faire  large 
plaines,  sweete  cristall  fountaines,  and  cleare  running 
streames,  that  twine  in  fine  meanders  through  the 
meads,  making  so  sweete  a  murmering  noise  to  heare, 
as  would  even  lull  the  sences  with  delight  a  sleepe,  so 
pleasantly  doe  they  glide  upon  the  pebble  stones,  jet- 


54 


TWO    HUNDRED   AND   FIFTIETH 


ting  most  jocundly  where  they  doe  meete;  and  hand  in 
hand  runne  downe  to  Neptunes  Court,  to  pay  the 
yearely  tribute,  which  they  owe  to  him  as  soveraigne 
Lord  of  all  the  springs."  ^ 

During  the  early  days  of  the  settlement  the  town- 
ship Avas  covered  with  a  natural  growth  of  timber,  in 
which  the  oak,  the  elm,  the  chestnut,  the  ash,  the  pine 
and  the  cedar  were  mingled;  and  through  many  years 
the  town  records  bear  frequent  trace  of  the  jealous 
care  with  which  the  townsmen  preserved  this  great 
source  of  beauty  and  of  wealth.^  As  timber,  however, 
became  more  valuable,  the  forests  were  encroached 
upon,  mitil  in  the  third  quarter  of  the  last  century 
they  had  been  well  nigh  destroyed.  But,  during  the 
earlier  years,  as  one  stood  on  King-Oak  Hill,  the 
whole  broad  panorama  must  have  appeared  an  almost 
unbroken  wilderness  of  wooded  hill  and  dale,  and  azure 
sea  and  verdant  shore;  while  here  and  there,  few  and 
far  between,  could  have  been  discerned  the  rude  belfry 
of  a  colonial  church;  or  the  long,  brown,  sloping  roof 
and  hard  angular  front  of  some  farmer's  house,  sur- 
rounded by  barns  and  buildings  more  unsightly  than 
itself,  protruded  its  ugliness  amidst  the  open  fields 
u23on  which  the  cattle  grazed  or  the  ripening  harvest 
waved.  Weymouth  was  not  settled,  as  were  many 
other  towns,  with  a  view  to  village  life,  while  outlying 
farms  stretched  away  to  the  outskirts  of  the  township, 
—  here  every  free-holder  seems  to  have  dwelt  upon  his 
land.  The  church  and  the  burying-ground  were  the 
natural  centres  of  the  olden  town,  but  no  village  then 

1  New  Englisli  Canaan,  p.  41. 

-Whoever  shall  presume  to  fell  or  kill  or  top  any  ti'ee  or  trees  (after 
publication  hereof  or  notice  given)  v?hich  growes  before  his  owne  or  his 
neighbours  Dore,  or  that  stands  in  any  place  upon  the  commons  or  high- 
wayes  which  may  be  for  the  shaddow  either  of  man  or  beast  or  shelter  to 
any  house  or  otherwise  for  any  public  use  every  person  so  offending  shall 
be  lyable  to  pay  for  every  such  tree  so  feld,  topt,  or  kild  20s.  to  the  Town's 
use."     Records,  February/  1st,  1S67  (?). 


ANNIVERSARY    ADDRESS.  55 

or  now  has  ever  gathered  about  them.  Even  as  late 
as  1780  there  were  but  about  some  two  hundred  houses 
m  all  scattered  over  the  whole  surface  of  Weymouth, 
and  these  were  of  the  plainest,  simplest  sort.* 

The  men  and  women  who  dwelt  in  them  were  in 
great  degree  cut  off  from  the  whole  outer  world;  —  at 
least  we  would  think  so  now.  The  roads  were  few 
and  bad;  the  chief  one,  still  known  as  Queen  Ann's 
turnpike,  is  said  to  have  received  its  name,  not  from 
the  sovereign  of  the  loyal  colonies,  but  from  the  hostess 
of  a  little  "  four  corner  "  inn  upon  it,  who  was  always 
known  by  that  royal  title. ^  Queen  Ann's  turnpike  was 
the  direct  road  between  Boston  and  Plymouth,  but  the 
time  of  which  I  speak  was  long  before  the  stage- 
coach era,  and  the  Weymouth  man,  whom  business 
called  to  Boston,  went  by  water,  or  drove  or  walked 
there  over  Milton  Hill  and  Eoxbury  Keck.  Nor  was 
that  journey  to  Boston  then  devoid  of  dangei'.  Early 
in  the  last  century,  for  instance,  it  is  traditionally  stated 
that  a  party,  including  two  of  the  principal  citizens  of 
Weymouth,  while  returning  home  by  water  from  Bos- 
ton, were  overtaken  by  a  snow-storm  and  wrecked  on 
one  of  the  islands  in  the  bay;  all  perished,  it  is  said, 
save  Captain  Alexander  Kash  and  a  negro  servant, 
through  whose  devotion  his  life  was  saved.^  If  the 
tradition  be  true  it  should  be  added  that  Captain  Kash's 
descendants  in  the  present  century  have  repaid  the 
debt  due  to  their  ancestor's  slave  by  long  and  eminent 
services  in  the  emancipation  of  his  race.  But  the  story 
at  least  illustrates  the  distance  then  existing  between 
Boston  and  Weymouth,* — a  distance  greater  for  every 

1  Sketch  of  Weymouth,  by  Dr.  Cotton  Tufts. 

2  This  and  some  other  facts  1  state  on  the  authority  of  Mrs.  Maria  W. 
Chapman,  of  Weymouth,  -who  very  kindly  furnished  me  with  much  local 
information  which  has  not  heretofore  found  its  way  into  print. 

3 Mrs.  Chapman's  MS.;  and  see  Savage's  Winthrop,  v.  1,  p.  286. 
*  "The  distance  by  land  from  Boston  to  the  confines  of  the  town  is  14 
miles."     Sketch  by  Dr.  Cotton  Tufts. 


56 


TWO   HUNDRED   AND   FIFTIETH 


practical    purpose   than    that    now    existing   between 
Weymouth  and  JSTew  York. 

Between  Old  Spain  and  Quincy  Point,  or  Wessagus- 
set  and  Mount  Wollaston  as  they  then  were  called,  a 
ferry  was  authorized  as  early  as  1635,  and  the  rate  of 
ferriage  was  fixed  at  a  penny  for  each  person  and  at 
threepence  for  each  horse;  two  years  later  this  rate  was 
raised  and  the  ferryman  of  the  day  was  licensed  to  keep 
a  house  of  call.  But  so  far  as  the  whole  great  outer 
world  was  concerned,  the  earlier  dwellers  in  Weymouth 
were,  through  four  generations,  what  we  should  con- 
sider as  entombed  alive.  There  was  no  newspaper,— 
there  was  no  system  of  public  transportation,  —  there 
was  no  regular  post,  —  between  the  colonies  themselves 
there  was  little  occasion  for  intercourse,  and  Europe 
was  months  removed.  Those  freemen  who  were  elected 
deputies  attended  the  sessions  of  the  General  Court; 
and  now  and  then  the  clergyman  or  the  magistrate 
took  part  in  some  solemn  conclave  of  his  brethren  at 
the  capital  or  in  a  neighboring  town.  Of  the  young 
men,  a  few  went  with  the  fishing  fleet  to  Cape  Sable, 
or  sailed  on  trading  voyages  to  the  West  Indies  or  to 
Spain,  thus  catching  glimpses  of  the  outer  world;  but 
it  may  well  be  questioned  whether  any  Weymouth-born 
woman  ever  laid  eyes  on  the  shores  of  the  mother 
country  during  the  first  hundred  and  sixty  years  of  the 
settlement  of  the  town. 

The  men  and  women  of  those  five  generations  were 
a  poor,  hard-working,  sombre  race,  —  rising  early  and 
working  late,  —  laboriously  earning  their  bread  by  the 
sweat  of  their  brows.  There  were  no  labor  reformers 
then.  The  men  worked  in  the  fields,  the  women  in  the 
house:  the  first  tended  the  flocks,  or  planted  and  gath- 
ered the  harvest;  —  the  last  busied  themselves  in  the 
dairy  and  the  kitchen,  or  at  the  spinning-wheel  and  the 
wash-tub.     It  is  a  tradition  of  the  daughter  of  Parson 


ANNIYERSAHY   ADDRESS.  57 

Smith  that  with  her  own  hands  she  scrubbed  the  floor 
of  her  bed-room  the  afternoon  before  her  eldest  son, 
John  Qnincy  Adams,  was  born.  There  was  no  non- 
sense at  least  about  that  people ;  every  one  had  work 
to  do,  and  no  one,  gentle  or  simple,  was  above  his 
work. 

For  years  there  was  a  single  school  in  the  town,  and 
the  teacher  was  annually  engaged  by  a  vote  in  the 
town-meeting.^  Subsequently  his  teaching  was  divided, 
the  north  precinct  receiving  eight  months  of  his  time 
and  the  south  four;  but  this  arrangement  not  proving 
satisfactory,  the  money  raised  for  support  of  schools 
was  finally  divided  between  the  precincts  in  proportion 
to  their  tax,  and  they  were  left  to  apply  it  each  in  its 
own  way.  But  for  us  it  is  most  curious  to  see  through 
all  these  years  how  small  were  the  expenses  of  the 
town  and  how  large  a  proportion  of  the  annual  tax  was 

1  "  At  a  Generall  Town  Meeting  of  the  inhabitants  of  Weymouth  the  24th 
of  June,  1689." 

"  The  Town  past  a  vote  that  William  Chard  is  to  serve  as  Town  Clerk." 

"  At  a  meeting  of  the  Selectmen  upon  the  first  day  of  Jvily  1689  Agreed 
with  Mr.  Chard  to  Ring  the  Bell  &  Sweep  the  Meeting-hoiise  to  begin  the 
6th  daye  of  July,  and  for  the  time  that  he  performs  that  work  he  is  to  have 
after  the  rate  of  forty  shillings  a  year  in  money  or  three  pounds  in  town 
pay." 

"  At  a  Meeting  of  the  freeholders  of  the  town  of  Weymouth  the  13th  day 
of  July  1694." 

"  The  Towne  past  a  vote  they  will  have  a  publique  School-master." 

"  At  a  meeting  legally  warned  for  the  Inhabitants  of  the  town  of  Wey- 
mouth upon  the  first  of  October  1694  to  treat  concerning  a  School-master, 
and  it  was  voted  that  Mr.  Chard  should  serve  as  School-master  from  the 
date  abovesaid  till  the  last  of  March  next  ensuing  the  date  hereof,  &  pro- 
vided Mr.  Chard  doe  faithfully  perform  the  office  of  School-master,  that  is 
to  teach  &  instruct  all  children  &  youth  belonging  to  the  town  in  reading 
&  writing  &  casting  of  accounts  according  to  the  capacitie  of  those  that  are 
sent  to  him,  and  according  to  his  own  abillitie  :  under  this  consideration 
the  town  have  past  a  vote  upon  the  aforesaid  first  of  October  that  Mr.  Chard 
shall  have  for  his  sallary  for  the  half  year  above  expressed  six  pounds  in  or 
as  money  to  be  levied  upon  the  severall  Inhabitants  according  to  proportion 
by  a  town  rate." 

The  next  year  (1695),  William  Chard  was  again  engaged  at  five  shillings 
a  week,  but  in  1696  an  arrangement  was  made  with  Mr.  John  Copp  at  £30 
a  year.  The  salary  of  the  pastor  at  this  time  was  "  £108  16s.  in  goods  alias 
money  £68"  (about  $225). 


68  TWO   HTJin^RED   AND   FIFTIETH 

applied  to  education.  In  the  last  century,  before  the 
War  of  Independence  destroyed  all  measure  of  value, 
i6120  (|420)  of  the  old  tenor,  so  called,  was  the  aver- 
age annual  levy,  and  of  this  five-sixths  went  to  the 
support  of  the  schools.  Expenditures  on  other  ac- 
counts were  necessarily  very  small.  Until  the  year 
1760  the  highways  were  repaired  by  the  labor  of  the 
people  of  the  town,  who,  for  this  purpose  appear  to 
have  been  equally  assessed.  As,  however,  the  disparity 
in  wealth  became  greater  and  this  burden  heavier,  the 
system  was  changed,  and  in  1760  every  person  paying 
a  poll-tax  was  called  on  for  a  day's  labor,  which  was 
assessed  at  2s.  Id.  (35  cents),  and  those  who  also  paid 
property  taxes  were  further  called  on  for  as  many  ad- 
ditional days'  labor  as  2s.  Id.  were  contained  in  the 
amount  of  their  property  tax.^  The  sparsely  settled 
character  of  the  town  obviated  all  necessity  of  a  fire 
department,  though  an  entry  in  the  records  as  early  as 
1651  gives  a  curious  glimpse  into  the  habits  and  dan- 
gers of  a  community  before  the  blessed  invention  of 
lucifer  matches.  An  order  was  then  made  by  the  se- 
lectmen, in  consideration  of  "  the  great  loss  and  dam- 
age that  many  &  many  a  time  doth  fall  out  in  this 
Towne  by  fire,"  and  because  "  no  efl'ort  has  been  made 
to  restrayne  the  carringe  abroad  of  fiery  sticks  ....  in 
mens  hands,  which  is  exceeding  dangerous  especially 
when  the  wind  is  high,"  —  in  view  of  these  facts  the 
town  fathers,  under  a  penalty  of  twenty  shillings  for 
each  ofi'ence,  proceeded  to  forbid  any  one  between 
March  and  Il^ovember  from  transporting  "  any  fire  from 
one  place  to  another  than  in  a  pot  or  other  vessell  fit 
for  such  a  purpose  and  close  covered."^  Until  the 
present  century,  however,  this  ordinance  seems  to  have 
been  regarded  as  sufficient  protection  against  the  dan- 

1  Records,  10th  March,  1760  ;  John  Adams'  Works,  vol.  2,  p.  118. 
^Eecords,  p.  56. 


ANNIVERSARY  ADDRESS.  59 

gers  of  conflagration,  thus  cutting  o&  that  heavy  item 
of  modern  town  expenses ;  while,  so  far  as  salaries  were 
concerned,  volumes  are  contained  in  the  following 
clause  with  which  the  vote  of  1651,  defining  the  duties 
and  powers  of  the  selectmen,  closed  ;  —  "  Sixthly  — 
Wee  willingly  grant  they  shall  have  their  Dynners  up- 
pon  the  Towne's  charge  when  they  meet  about  the 
Towns  affayres."  ^ 

The  town  government  of  those  days  was,  indeed, 
the  simplest  government  conceivable.  There  were  the 
clergyman  (for  parish  and  town  were  one),  the  school- 
master, the  selectmen,  the  deputy,  the  constable  and  the 
pound-keej)er.  In  the  earliest  days  it  was  even  simpler 
yet  than  this,  for  frequent  meetings  of  the  whole  town 
were  called.  But  even  then  it  was  speedily  found  that 
this  led  to  abuses,^  and,  in  1651,  a  system  of  two  regu- 
lar toAvn  meetings  in  each  year  was  adopted,  and  the 
powers  of  the  selectmen  were  specifically  defined.^    The 

1  Records,  26th  November,  1651. 

2  The  "  mutifariousness  "  of  such  meetings  "  occacions  the  neglect  of 
appearance  of  many  whereby  things  [are]  many  times  carried  on  by  a  few 
in  which  many  or  all  are  concerned  which  often  makes  the  legality  of  such 
proceedings  to  be  questioned."  It  was  therefore  voted  to  thereafter  have 
two  regular  town  meetings  in  each  year  in  March  and  November.  Records, 
1650,  p.  56. 

3  "  At  a  meeting  of  the  Town  the  26th  of  the  9tii  moth  (November)  1651. 

"  The  power  that  the  Towne  of  Weymouth  committeth  into  the  hands 
of  the  Selectmen  for  this  present  year  ensueing  1651. 

"  First.  Wee  give  them  power  to  make  such  orders  as  may  be  for  the 
preservation  of  our  intrests  in  lands  &  corne  &  grass  &  Wood  &  Timber, 
that  none  be  transported  out  of  the  Towns  Commons. 

"  Secondly.  They  shall  have  power  to  see  that  all  orders  made  by  the 
Generall  Court  shall  be  observed  and  also  all  such  orders  that  are  or  shal 
be  made  which  the  Towne  shall  not  repeale  at  their  meetinge  in  the  first 
month. 

"  Thirdly.  It  shal  be  lawful  for  them  to  take  course  that  dry  Cattle  be 
bearded  in  the  woods  except  calves  &  Yearlings  &  that  they  provide  Bulls 
both  for  the  Cowes  &  dry  Cattle. 

"  Fourthly.  They  may  issue  out  all  such  rates  as  the  Towns  occasions 
shall  require  &  see  that  they  be  gathred,  that  a  due  account  may  be  given 
of  them. 

"  Fifthly.  They  may  satisfy  all  graunts  provided  they  satisfy  them  in 
due  order,  and  not  within  two  miles  of  the  Meeting-house. 

"  Sixthly.  Wee  willingly  grant  they  shall  have  their  Dynners  uppou  the 
Towns  charge  when  they  meete  about  the  Towns  affayres."     Becords. 


60  TWO    HUNDRED   AND   riFTIETH 

continuous  record  of  these  meetings  through  more  than 
a  century,  at  once  reveals  the  slow,  unconscious  growth 
of  a  great  political  system,  and  supplies  the  amplest 
evidence  of  the  sameness  of  a  colonial  village  life.  To 
the  student  in  the  science  of  government  these  volumes 
of  the  Weymouth  town  records  are  replete  with  in- 
terest. In  them  the  growth  of  a  system  from  the  root 
up  may  be  studied.  As  an  observing  man  turns  over 
the  ill-spelt,  almost  illegible  pages,  they  grow  luminous 
in  their  bearing  on  many  of  the  most  distressing  prob- 
lems of  the  age.  As  Gibbon,  from  an  experience 
among  the  yeoman  militia  of  England,  derived  a  cer- 
tain comprehension  of  the  legionaries  of  Rome,  —  so 
the  early  records  of  the  'Ne\Y  England  towns  make  it 
most  manifest  to  us  why  the  horrors  of  1793,  and  the 
later  excesses  of  the  Commune,  are  possible  in  France, 
and  why  nothing  other  than  a  republic  is  now  possible 
in  ^ew  England.  In  these  records  we  see  parliamen- 
tary institutions  stripped  of  their  non-essentials  and 
reduced  to  first  principles;  —  we  see  that  the  ISTew 
England  town-meeting  democracy  was  the  purest  and 
simplest  government  of  the  people,  for  the  people, 
which  the  world  has  yet  produced.  Here  is  a  perfect 
equality,  controlled  by  an  almost  iron  law  of  usage. 
Year  after  year  every  question  of  common  concernment 
is  settled  in  general  town-meeting  by  a  vote  of  the 
majority,  after  a  free  and  full  discussion,  conducted 
in  perfect  deference  to  a  rude  parliamentary  law.  The 
greater  number  rules,  but  the  minority  ever  asserts  its 
rights,  which  are  always  freely  conceded.  The  pro- 
tests of  the  conb^a  dicentes  make  a  part  of  the  records ; 
the  final  appeal  is  made  to  the  courts  of  lawj  the  idea 
of  an  ultimate  resort  to  force  is  never  even  suggested, 
much  less  discussed.  Thus,  through  our  town  records, 
we  are  made  to  realize  that  republican  government  is 
in  New  England  a  product  of  the  soil  and  not  an  ex- 


ANNIVERSARY   ADDRESS.  61 

otic,  —  in  France  it  is  a  graft;  Avith  us  it  is  the  stem. 
The  growth  of  this  germ  from  the  town-meeting  to  the 
General  Court,  from  the  General  Court  to  the  Conti- 
nental Congress,  and  from  that  to  the  Government  of 
the  United  States,  and  thence  back  to  the  great  car- 
dinal fact  of  force,  —  all  this  is  for  othei'S  to  trace. 
Meanwhile,  here  to-day,  we  stand  on  a  record  of  two 
hundred  and  fifty  years  of  pure  democracy, —  the  deep, 
underlying  tap-root  of  whatever  is  good  in  America. 
And  indeed  that  record  relates  not  to  great  things.  It 
tells  us  of  the  daily  life  of  our  fathers.  It  deals  not 
with  theories,  but  with  practical  issues.  The  earlier 
generations  did  not  realize  that  they  were  evolving  a 
system,  when  they  made  regulations  for  the  preserva- 
tion of  the  town  timber  and  the  use  of  its  common 
grounds;  to  check  the  roving  propensities  of  its  hogs, 
and  to  prescribe  the  liberty  of  the  rams  or  the  number 
of  the  parish  bulls.  Yet  such  was  the  fact,  and  the 
whole  developed  system  of  our  N^ational  Government 
of  to-day  may  be  read  in  little  in  the  Weymouth  town 
records  of  over  a  century  past.  To-day's  jealousy  of 
the  foreign  producer  is  there  evinced  towards  those  in- 
habiting the  neighboring  towns,  —  they  must  not  par- 
take of  the  privileges  of  Weymouth.  The  protective 
system  began  with  the  beginning.  In  the  earlier  days 
bounties  are  offered  for  the  ears  of  wolves,  but  later,  as 
the  wilderness  is  subdued,  these  are  dropped  from  the 
record  and  the  crow  and  the  blackbird  are  proscribed 
in  their  place.  'Now  and  again  we  find  the  town  enter- 
ing on  some  system  of  encouragement  to  a  new  branch 
of  industry,  making  a  grant  of  land  therefor;  ^  but  the 

1  March  7,  1698.  "  Voted  that  John  Torrey,  Tanner,  for  the  encourage- 
ment of  his  trade  shall  have  twelve  pole  of  land  joining  to  his  fathers  land 
out  of  the  towns  commons  for  a  tanyard  so  long  as  there  shall  be  use  for  it 
for  that  trade  in  this  Town." 

March  1,  1715.  "At  the  said  Meeting  Jolin  Torrey,  James  Humphrey, 
Joseph  Torrey,  Ezra  Whitmarsh,  Enoch  Lovoll,  Ebcnczer  Pratt  &  divers 
others  their  partners  who  had  agreed  to  begin  a  fishing  trade  to  Cape-sables, 


62  TWO   HUNDRED   AND   FIFTIETH 

herring  fishery  and  the  passage  of  the  alewives  into 
Great  Pond  have  left,  perhaps,  the  deepest  mark  on 
the  town  records.  The  annual  passage  of  the  fish  up 
the  Back  River  was  an  event  in  the  life  of  Weymouth, 
exciting  the  liveliest  interest  in  old  and  young.  For 
this  really  great  boon  the  town  was  indebted  to  Adam 
Gushing,  one  of  its  prominent  citizens  in  the  provincial 
times.  Mr.  Gushing  died  in  the  year  of  the  great  sick- 
ness, 1751,  and  seems  to  have  been  a  truly  remarkable 
man.  About  1730  he  bethought  himself  of  bringing 
some  herring,  during  the  spawning  season,  over  from 
Taunton  River  to  the  Great  Pond.  He  did  so,  himself 
superintending  the  work  of  transportation,  and  seeing 
to  it  that  fresh  water  was  properly  supplied  to  the  fish. 
It  would  seem,  therefore,  that  through  him  Weymouth 
may  claim  a  place  of  one  hundred  and  forty  years' 
standing  in  the  interesting  history  of  pisciculture  in 
Massachusetts.^ 

These  records  also  reveal  to  us  very  clearly  what  a 
singularly  conservative  race  our  ancestors  were,  —  in 
this  respect  how  different  from  their  children.  They 
clung  very  close  to  authority,  to  tradition  and  to  pre- 
cedent. The  conditions  by  which  they  were  surrounded 
changed  but  slowly,  and  they  themselves  changed  more 
slowly  yet.  What  volumes,  for  instance,  in  this  re- 
spect, are  contained  in  this  single  fact :  —  in  1651  the 
town,  in  six  brief  articles,  defined   the  powers  of  its 

requested  of  the  town  that  they  might  have  that  piece  or  parcel  of  land  at 
the  mouth  of  the  fore  river  in  the  northerly  part  of  Weymouth  called  and 
knovrn  by  the  name  of  Hnnts  Hill  and  the  low  land  and  Beach  adjoining 
thereunto,  that  is  so  much  as  they  shall  need  for  the  management  of  said 
fishing  trade.  The  Town  after  consideration  thereof  Voted  that  they 
should  have  the  said  land  and  Beach  to  manage  their  fishing  trade." 

March  13,  1727.  "  Voted  at  the  aforesaid  meeting  whether  the  Town 
will  give  to  Doctor  White  five  acres  of  Land  below  Hill  that  was  form- 

erly granted  to  John  Vinson  provided  the  said  Doctor  White  continues  in 
the  town  of  Weymouth  and  in  practice  of  physick,  &  in  case  he  shall  re- 
move out  of  town  said  White  to  purchase  said  land  or  to  return  it  to  the 
Town  again.     It  passed  iu  the  affirmative." 

1  Mrs.  Chapman's  MS.     And  see  Kecords,  1st  March,  1731. 


ANNIVERSARY   ADDRESS.  63 

selectmen,  and  more  than  sixty  years  later,  in  1712,  I 
find  the  following  entry  in  the  records:  "Yoted  the 
Selectmen  the  same  power  they  had  granted  in  the 
year  1651."^  Again,  to  cite  another  example:  Wey- 
mouth then,  as  now,  had  among  its  citizens  a  James 
Humphrey,  and,  under  date  of  March  12th,  1781,  T  find 
this  entry :  "  Voted  —  That  the  thanks  of  the  Town 
be  given  to  the  Hon^^^  James  Humphrey  Esq^.  for  his 
faithful  services  as  a  selectman  in  the  Town  for  more 
than  forty  years  past."  Unlike  so  many  of  her  sister 
towns,  the  Weymouth  of  to-day  has  never,  even  yet, 
learned  enough  of  the  science  of  true  republican  gov- 
ernment to  "  rotate "  its  town  officials.  When  they 
have  had  a  man  who  was  willing  to  serve  them  well 
and  faithfully,  they  have  actually  kept  him  in  office. 
The  James  Humphrey  of  the  last  century  served  the 
town  "over  forty  years";  the  James  Humphrey  of 
this  has  already  served  it  nearly  twenty-five. 

I  do  not  know  if  it  indeed  was  so,  but  to  me  the  very 
nature  of  the  'New  England  world  seems  to  have  been 
less  cheerful  in  those  earlier  days  than  now.  ISTot  only 
was  life  less  joyous,  but  nature  wore  a  harsher  front. 
I  have  spoken  of  the  great  sickness  of  1751,  and  how 
it  desolated  Weymouth;  but  epidemics  seem  to  have 
been  far  more  prevalent  during  the  last  century  than  in 
this.  The  fearful  scourge  of  the  small-pox  has  left  its 
pit-marks  on  every  page  of  early  ^ew  England  history, 
and  when,  in  1775,  a  chronic  dysentery  prevailed  to 
such  an  extent  that  three,  four  and  even  five  children 
were  lost  in  single  families,  a  Weymouth  woman  writ- 
ing from  the  midst  of  the  general  distress  could  only 
say  "  the  dread  upon  the  minds  of  the  people  of  catch- 
ing the  distemper  is  almost  as  great  as  if  it  were  the 
small-pox."  ^    Yet  in  1735  the  diphtheria  raged,  as  well 

1  See  Records,  3d  March,  1712. 

2  Letters  of  Mrs.  Adams  (ed.  1848),  p.  xxxvi. 


64  TWO   HUNDRED   AND   FIFTIETH 

as  in  1751.  Their  winters  also  seem  to  have  been 
longer,  their  snows  deeper,  their  frosts  more  severe 
than  onrs.  In  1717  there  was  a  great  snow-storm, 
famous  in  JS^ew  England  annals.  The  country  was 
buried  under  huge  drifts,  which  swept  over  fences  and 
houses,  reducing  the  whole  colony  to  one  white,  glit- 
tering desert.  Weymouth  disappeared  with  the  rest, 
and  the  event  was  of  sufficient  importance  to  cause  a 
memorandum  of  it  to  be  inserted  in  the  records.^  In 
other  years  we  hear  of  the  harbor  freezing  over  in 
]S"ovember;  and  on  the  26th  of  March,  1785,  the  win- 
ter's snow,  though  much  reduced,  lay  still  on  a  level 
with  the  fences,  nor  was  it  till  April  7th  that  the  ice 
broke  up  in  the  Fore  River.^  I  doubt  whether  any 
man  now  living  has  witnessed  a  like  occurrence. 

A  severer  climate  and  harsher  visitations  seem 
strictly  in  keeping  with  the  character  of  the  people. 
The  religious  element  which  led  to  the  settlement  of 
I^ew  England  still  strongly  asserted  itself  in  the  life 
and  customs  of  the  colony.  Wealth  had  hardly  yet 
begun  to  exercise  its  subtle  influence  upon  it.  Indeed, 
though  almost  all  were  prosperous  there  was  little  of 
what  can  properly  be  called  wealth  in  the  community, 
but  there  was  equally  little  poverty.  The  people  lived 
in  rude  abundance,  and  I  do  not  believe  that  during 
the  first  hundred  years  of  the  history  of  Weymouth  as 
many  persons  received  public  aid  of  the  town.  Cer- 
tainly the  method  of  dealing  with  pauperism,  where  it 
occasionally  appears  in  the  records,  was  primitive  in 
the  extreme,  and  scarcely  commends  itself  to  modern 
theories.^     But  as  a  rule  there  appears  to  have  been  a 

1  "An  exceeding  great  snow  on  February  21st,  1717."  Records  (v.  1,  p. 
270).     It  is  the  single  record  of  the  kind. 

^  MS.  memorandiun  of  Dr.  Cotton  Tufts. 

3  The  following  record,  for  instance,  is  a  little  suggestive  of  what  is  now 
called  "  baby  farming,"  though  we  know  in  that  society  it  led  to  fewer 
abuses.  At  a  town  meeting  in  Weymouth,  August  28,  1733,  "  Voted  by 
the  Town  to  give  Twenty  pounds  to  any  person  that  will  take  two  of  the 


ANNIVERSARY   ADDRESS.  65 

strikingly  equal  division  of  such  property  as  the  people 
had,  which  lay  almost  wholly  in  their  cattle  and  their 
lands ;  accumulation  had  scarcely  begun. 

We  are  always  accustomed  to  regard  the  past  as  a 
better  and  purer  time  than  the  present,  —  there  is  a 
vague,  traditional  simplicity  and  innocence  hanging 
about  it  almost  Arcadian  in  character.  I  can  find  no 
ground  on  which  to  base  this  pleasant  fancy.  Taken 
altogether  I  do  not  believe  that  the  morals  of  Wey- 
mouth or  of  her  sister  towns  were  on  the  average  as 
good  in  the  eighteenth  century  as  in  the  nineteenth. 
The  people  were  sterner  and  graver, —  the  law  and  the 
magistrate  were  more  severe,  but  human  nature  was 
the  same  and  would  have  vent.  There  was,  I  am  in- 
clined to  think,  more  hypocrisy  in  those  days  than  now, 
but  I  have  seen  nothing  which  has  led  me  to  believe 
that  the  women  were  more  chaste,  or  that  the  men 
were  more  temperate,  or  that,  in  proportion  to  popula- 
tion, fewer  or  less  degrading  crimes  were  perpetrated. 
Certainly  the  earlier  generations  were  as  a  race  not  so 
charitable  as  their  descendants,  and  less  of  a  spirit  of 
kindly  Christianity  prevailed  among  them.  But  in 
those  days  enjoyment  itself  was  almost  a  crime,  and 
every  pleasure  was  thought  to  be  a  lure  of  the  devil 
and  close  upon  the  boundarj'  line  to  guilt.  Holidays, 
accordingly,  were  few  and  far  between.  The  May-pole 
disappeared  with  the  wild  Morton  of  Merry  Mount. 
During  the  colonial  period,  election  or  training  day 
was  what  the  Fourth  of  July  is  to  us, — the  great  anni- 

Children  of  the  Widow  Ruth  Harvey  (that  is)  the  Eldest  Daughter  and  one 
of  the  youngest  "Daughters  (a  twin)  and  take  the  care  of  them  untill  they 
be  eighteen  years  old. 

"  Voted  that  the  Selectmen  shall  take  care  of  the  other  (twin)  a  youngest 
daughter  of  the  widow  Ruth  Harvey,  and  put  it  out  as  reasonably  as  they 
can." 

The  following  also  has  a  strange  sound  to  modern  ears,  from  the  Record 
of  March  11th,  1771:  "Voted  to  sell  the  Poor  that  are  maintained  by  the 
town  for  this  present  year  at  a  Vendue  to  the  lowest  bidder."  Records  (v. 
1,  pp.  318,  438). 


66  TWO   HUNDRED   AND   FIFTIETH 

versaiy  of  the  year,  on  which  the  whole  coramiinity 
came  as  near  to  unbending  as  it  knew  how.  Thanks- 
giving and  the  annual  fast  were  both  church  days; 
Guy  Fawkes'  day  was  notorious  for  its  noisy  revels; 
Sunday  was  devoted  to  nominal  rest  and  veritable  ex- 
hortation. On  that  day,  every  one  not  an  infant  at- 
tended church,  and  the  infants  were  left  alone  at 
home.^  From  Saturday  evening  to  Monday  morning 
all  labor  ceased,  —  the  voices  of  the  children  were 
hushed,  —  the  blinds  were  drawn,  and  a  quiet,  which 
was  not  rest,  pervaded  the  town.  The  lecture  and  the 
sermon  were  the  events  of  the  week,  —  they  supplied 
the  place  of  the  theatre,  the  novel  and  the  newspaper, 
—  they  were  listened  to  and  discussed  and  commented 
upon  by  old  and  young,  —  and,  so  far  as  my  investiga- 
tions have  enabled  me  to  judge,  the  stifFest  of  ortho- 
doxy was  ever  preached  from  the  Weymouth  pulpit. 

In  the  early  days,  however,  the  clergy  of  'New  Eng- 
land were  an  aristocracy,  —  almost  a  caste.  IN^ot,  of 
course,  an  aristocracy  of  wealth,  but  of  education, 
tradition  and  faith,  —  a  veritable  priesthood  in  fiict. 
The  tie  between  the  pastor  and  his  people  partook 
almost  of  the  nature  of  the  wedding  bond;  there  was  a 

1  "  There  fell  out  (1642)  a  very  sad  accident  at  Weymouth.  One  Richard 
Sylvester,  having  three  small  children,  he  and  his  vrife  going  to  the  as- 
sembly, upon  the  Lord's  day,  left  their  children  at  home.  The  eldest  was 
without  doors  looking  to  some  cattle;  the  middle-most,  being  a  son  about 
five  years  old,  seeing  his  father's  fowling  piece,  (being  a  very  great  one), 
stand  in  the  chimney,  took  it  and  laid  it  upon  a  stool,  as  he  had  seen  his 
father  do,  and  pulled  up  the  cock,  (the  spring  being  weak),  and  put  down 
the  hammer,  then  went  to  the  other  end  and  blowed  in  the  mouth  of  the 
piece,  as  he  had  seen  his  father  also  do,  and  with  that  stirring  the  piece 
being  charged,  it  went  off,  and  shot  the  child  into  its  mouth  and  through 
his  head.  When  the  father  came  home  he  found  his  child  lie  dead,  and 
could  not  have  imagined  how  he  should  have  been  so  killed,  but  the  young- 
est child,  (being  but  three  years  old,  and  could  scarce  speak),  showed  him 
the  whole  manner  of  it."     Savage's  Winthrop,  (v.  2,  p.  77). 

Weymouth,  June  1,  1775.  "  Voted  that  the  Soldiers  from  the  age  of  Six- 
teen to  Sixty  appear  with  their  arms  upon  Lords  Days  on  penalty  of  forfeit- 
ing a  Dollar  each  Lords  Day  for  their  neglect.  That  those  Soldiers  who 
tarry  at  home  upon  the  Lords  day,  Except  they  can  make  a  Reasonable 
Excuse  therefor  Shall  forfeit  two  Dollars."     Records. 


ANNIVERSARY   ADDRESS.  67 

sanctity  about  it;  it  was  well-nigh  indissoluble.  But 
in  its  earliest  period  Weymouth  was  not  fortunate  in 
these  relations.  Prior  to  1635  the  plantation  was  too 
poor  and  too  small  in  numbers  to  maintain  a  church, 
but  that  year  one  was  gathered,  being  the  eleventh  of 
the  colony.^  Of  Mr.  Hull,  the  first  authentic  pastor,  it 
can  only  be  said  that  he  preached  in  Weymouth  for 
several  years,  and  then  his  connection  with  the  church 
was  dissolved.  There  seems  indeed  at  this  time  to 
have  been  a  serious  schism  in  the  infant  settlement, 
for,  while  Mr.  Hull  arrived  in  1635  and  preached  his 
farewell  sermon  in  May,  1639,  j^et  as  early  as  January, 
1638,  the  elders  of  Boston  had  come  to  Weymouth, 
and  had  there  demonstrated  the  efficacy  of  prayer  by 
effecting  a  reconciliation  between  one  Mr.  Jenner  and 
his  people.  The  reconciliation  seems  to  have  been  but 
temporary,  for,  after  representing  the  town  as  deputy 
in  the  General  Court  in  1640,  in  1641  Mr.  Jenner  re- 
moved to  Saco.  Meanwhile,  in  1637,  the  Rev.  Mr. 
Lenthall  also  appears  upon  the  Weymouth  stage, 
bringing  with  him  the  pestilential  doctrines  of  Mrs. 
Hutchinson  in  regard  to  justification  before  faith  and 
other  equally  incomprehensible  theses,  which  came  so 
near  working  the  destruction  of  the  infant  colony.  A 
movement  was  started  inviting  Mr.  Lenthall  to  settle 
and  organize  a  new  church.  It  was  apparently  making 
rapid  headway  when  the  magistrates  of  the  colony 
energetically  interfered  to  put  a  stop  to  it.  In  March, 
1638,  Mr.  Lenthall  accordingly,  with  some  of  his  lead- 
ing supporters,  was  summoned  to  appear  before  the 
General  Court,  and  made  to  see  good  reason  why,  with 
expressions  of  deep  contrition,  he  should  make  a  re- 
traction of  his  heresies  in  writing  and  in  open  court. 
Upon   this,  he  was,  with   some   opposition,  dismissed 

1  Savage's   Winthrop,  v.  1,  p.  94,  n.     See  Johnson's  Wonder  Working 
Providence,  chap.  10. 


68  TWO    HUNDRED    AND   FIFTIETH 

without  a  fine,  but  only  on  condition  that  he  was  to 
make  a  similar  public  recantation  in  We}  mouth,  and 
should  also  be  on  hand  when  the  next  General  Court 
assembled.  His  followers  did  not  escape  so  easily;  one 
of  them  was  heavily  fined,  another  was  disfranchised,  a 
third,  having  no  means  wherewith  to  pay  a  fine,  was 
publicly  whipped,  and  a  fourth,  "  because  of  his  novel 
disposition,"  received  a  significant  intimation  to  the 
effect  that  the  General  Court  "  were  wearj^  of  him, 
unless  he  reform."  Shortly  after  this  miscarriage, 
features  in  which  are  unpleasantly  suggestive  of  in- 
quisitorial proceedings  in  other  lands,  the  Kev.  Mr. 
Lenthall  seems  to  have  left  Weymouth,  for  he  is  next 
heard  of  in  Rhode  Island,  that  blessed  asylum  for  the 
persecuted  of  Massachusetts.^ 

Mr.  Lenthall,  however,  represented  only  a  schism  in 
the  Weymouth  church;  Mr.  Jenner  was  the  minister 
in  the  line  of  true  succession.  He  retired  to  Maine  in 
1640  and  was  succeeded  in  his  pastorate  by  Mr.  JSTew- 
man,  who  at  last  brought  with  him  peace  to  the  dis- 
tracted church.  He  must  have  been  a  very  superior 
man, —  able,  learned  and  faithful.  Educated  at  Ox- 
ford, he  had  preached  many  years  in  England  before 
coming  to  this  country  in  1638.  He  then  spent  some 
time  in  Dorchester,  and  was  subsequently  invited  to 
Weymouth,  where  he  settled  and  remained  until  he 
migrated  with  the  larger  portion  of  his  people  to  Re- 
hoboth.  He  is  the  real  author  of  the  Concordance  to 
the  Bible  Avhich  goes  under  Cruden's  name;  for  it  was 
he  who  prepared  the  basis  of  the  work,  which  was  sub- 
sequently finished  and  published  at  Cambridge.^ 

1  Savage's  Winthrop,  v.  1,  p.  287. 

2  The  best  account  of  Mr.  Newman  and  his  Concordance  is  found  in  L'h's.s' 
History  of  BeJtoboth.  It  is  a  singular  fact  that  William  Blackstone  should 
have  gone  from  Boston  to  Kehoboth,  and  been  followed  there  by  an  emi- 
gration from  Wessagusset,  which  place  he  had  probably  abandoned  when 
he  went  to  Boston. 


ANNIVERSARY   ADDRESS.  69 

The  Weymouth  church  had  now  had  three  preachers 
in  nine  years,  but  the  day  of  short  pastorates  was  over. 
The  Rev.  Thomas  Thacher  was  ordained  as  the  suc- 
cessor of  Mr.  ]^eAvman  in  1644,  and  there  remained, 
beloved  and  respected  of  his  people,  for  twenty  years. 
Then  marrying  a  second  time,  and  his  parish  being  un- 
able to  afford  him  a  sufficient  maintenance,^  he  moved 
to  Boston,  the  home  of  his  wife,  and  in  him  Wejanouth 
lost  at  once  its  spiritual  and  its  medical  adviser,  for  Mr. 
Thacher  was  a  skillful  physician  as  well  as  a  learned 
divine.  Subsequently,  in  1669,  he  became  the  first 
pastor  of  the  Old  South  Church,  in  Boston,  in  which 
position  he  died,  in  1678,  leaving  behind  him  a  race  of 
descendants  whose  names  are  familiar  through  a  cen- 
tury of  colonial  annals. 

To  Mr.  Thacher's  pastorate  of  twenty  years  suc- 
ceeded the  iifty-one  years  of  the  learned  and  exemplary 
Samuel  Torrey,  the  trusted  adviser  of  the  magistrates 
of  his  day,  the  intimate  friend  of  all  its  leading  divines, 
thrice  invited  to  preach  the  election  sermon,  twice 
called  to  the  presidency  of  Harvard  College.  Mr. 
Torrey  enjoyed  a  very  remarkable  gift  of  prayer,  so 
that  it  is  told  of  him  that  upon  the  occasion  of  a  public 
fast,  in  1696,  after  all  the  other  exercises,  he  prayed 
for  two  hours,  and  that  so  acceptably  that  his  auditors, 
when  towards  the  close  he  hinted  at  some  new  and 
agreeable  fields  of  thought,  could  not  help  wishing  him 
to  enlarge  upon  them.^  He  died  deeply  lamented,  at 
the  age  of  seventy-six,  in  the  year  1707. 

Peter  Thacher  succeeded  Mr.  Torrey  in  the  year  of 
the  latter's  death,  and  continued  in  his  ministry  eleven 
years;  being  followed,  in  1719,  by  Thomas  Paine,  whose 
connection  with  the  church  continued  until  dissolved, 
at  his  own  request,  in  1734.     He  then  retired  to  Bos- 

III.  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  v.  7,  p.  11. 
2  Eliot's  Biographical  Dictionary. 


70  TWO   HUNDRED   AND   FIFTIETH 

ton,  where  he  ended  his  life,  and  his  body  was  brought 
back  to  "Weymouth  for  burial  beside  his  children.  He 
was  the  father  and  the  grandfather  of  those  Robert 
Treat  Paines,  the  line  of  which  is  continued  to  the 
present  day. 

In  1734  the  Bev.  William  Smith  was  settled  as  the 
eighth  successive  pastor  of  the  first  church,  and  so 
continued  for  forty-nine  years,  and  until  after  the  close 
of  the  colonial  period.  Mr.  Smith  was  beloved  and 
respected  through  his  long  ministry  by  his  people,  but 
to  posterity  he  is  chiefly  known  as  the  father  of  her 
who  proved  to  be  the  most  famous  child  of  Weymouth. 
The  familiar  anecdote  of  Parson  Smith's  sermons  on 
the  marriages  of  his  tAvo  daughters  does  not  need  to  be 
repeated  here.^  Whether  the  good  old  pastor  did  or 
did  not  prepare  the  wedding  discourse  for  Abigail's 
benefit  from  so  very  unsavory  a  text  as  that  "  John 
came  neither  eating  nor  drinking,  and  men  say  he  hath 
a  devil,"  we  cannot  now  tell;  the  anecdote  rests  on 
tradition  alone.  Let  us  hope,  however,  that  he  did,  for 
he  lived  to  see  his  daughter's  choice  justified  in  the 
eyes  of  the  most  doubting  of  his  parishioners;  though 
he  had  himself  already  been  thirteen  years  in  his  grave 
when,  on  •  the  8th  of  February,  1797,  that  daughter 
wrote  to  her  husband  in  these  solemn  words,  breathing 
the  full  spirit  of  the  dead  divine :  "  You  have  this  day 
to  declare  yourself  head  of  a  nation.  *^  And  now,  O 
Lord,  my  God,  thou  hast  made  thy  servant  ruler  ovei* 
the  people.  Give  unto  him  an  understanding  heart, 
that  he  may  know  how  to  go  out  and  come  in  before 
this  great  people;  that  he  may  discern  between  good 
and  bad.  For  who  is  able  to  judge  this  thy  so  great  a 
people  ? '  ....  My  thoughts  and  my  meditation  are 
Avith  you,  though  personally  absent;  and  my  jDctitions 

1  It  can  be  found  in  the  preface  (pp.  xxviii,  xxix),  of  the  letters  of  Mrs. 
Adams  (ed.  1848). 


ANNIVERSARY   ADDRESS.  71 

to  Heaven  are,  that  '  the  thmgs  which  make  for  peace 
may  not  be  hidden  from  your  eyes.'  "  ^ 

But  it  is  necessary  to  go  back  to  the  year  1765,  when 
the  long,  monotonous  quiet  of  over  a  century  was  to  be 
broken  for  Weymouth  and  all  her  sister  towns  by  the 
deep  though  distant  mutterings  of  an  impending  war. 
The  first  notes  of  the  struggle  then  break  sharply  in  on 
the  peaceful  sameness  of  the  town  records  like  the  blast 
of  a  trumpet.  The  Stamp  Act  had  been  passed,  and 
the  August  riots  had  taken  place  in  Boston.  Mr. 
Oliver  had  been  forced  to  resign  his  office,  and  the 
house  of  the  Lieutenant-Governor  had  been  sacked. 
The  odious  act  was  to  take  effect  on  the  1st  of  Novem- 
ber, and  a  special  session  of  the  General  Court  had 
been  called  to  take  into  consideration  the  course  it  was 
incumbent  on  the  colony  to  pursue.  The  representa- 
tive of  Weymouth  in  those  days  was  James  Humphrey, 
Esq.  Under  these  circumstances  a  meeting  of  the  free- 
men was  held  on  the  16th  of  October,  at  which  Dr. 
Cotton  Tufts  was  chosen  Moderator,  and  a  ringing  ad- 
dress of  instructions  to  Master  Humphrey,  as  he  was 
called,  was  voted  and  entered  at  length  upon  the 
records.  The  spirit  of  the  ancient  town  was  up,  and 
its  voice  emitted  no  uncertain  sound.  Cotton  Tufts 
was  at  that  time  thirty-four  years  of  age.  He  was 
fully  imbued  with  the  patriotic  spirit  of  the  day,  and 
was,  in  his  own  vicinage,  a  leading  man.  It  is  to  his 
pen  that  the  papers  now  entered  on  the  town  records 
are  in  all  probability  to  be  credited.^ 

Presently  the  government  of  the  mother  country 
somewhat  receded  from  its  position,  and,  during  the 
loyal  reaction  which  ensued,  a  draft  of  a  measure  in- 
demnifying the  sufferers  in  the  August  riots  was  sub- 

1  Letters  of  Mrs.  Adams  (eel.  1848),  p.  374. 

2  That  part  of  the  town  records  which  relates  to  the  revolutionary  period 
will  probably  be  printed  in  full  in  the  History  of  Weymouth,  now  in  course 
of  preparation. 


'fc> 


72  TWO   HUNDRED   AND   FIFTIETH 

mitted  to  the  General  Court.  A  special  town  meetin<> 
was  held  on  September  1,  1766,  and  the  town  refused 
to  give  its  assent  to  the  payment  of  damages  out  of  the 
public  treasury.  But  another  meeting  was  held  on  the 
1st  of  December,  when  written  instructions  were  en- 
tered at  length  on  the  records,  again  embodying  the 
full  rebel  spirit  of  the  day,  but  this  time,  and  under 
strict  conditions,  authorizing  Master  Humphrey  to  vote 
for  the  proposed  compensation. 

In  1768  came  the  news  that  the  British  regiments 
were  ordered  to  Boston.  A  committee  of  the  Boston 
town  meeting,  called  in  consequence  of  this  announce- 
ment, waited  on  Governor  Bernard  with  a  request, 
among  other  things,  that  the  General  Court  should  be 
convened.  Meeting  with  a  refusal,  the  Boston  people 
took  the  matter  into  their  own  hands,  and  instructed 
their  selectmen  to  invite,  by  circular  letter,  all  the 
towns  in  the  colony  to  send  representatives  to  assemble 
in  convention,  at  Boston,  on  the  22d  of  September. 
Over  one  hundred  towns  complied  with  this  bold  invi- 
tation, thus  overriding  the  royal  governor,  and  conven- 
ing an  assembly  which,  though  it  sat  but  four  days,  and 
carefully  avoided  any  claim  to  a  legal  existence,  was,  in 
everything  but  in  name,  a  house  of  representatives.  In 
this  convention  sat  James  Humphrey,  under  instruc- 
tions to  be  there  from  the  town  of  Weymouth. 

More  than  five  years  now  passed  awa}^  during  which 
the  controversy  between  the  mother  country  and  the 
colonies  was  continually  approaching  a  crisis,  but  they 
left  no  mark  on  the  records  of  Weymouth.  Then  arose 
the  question  as  to  the  tax  on  tea.  Early  in  December, 
1773,  the  famous  town  meeting  had  been  held  in  Fan- 
euil  Hall,  at  which  the  resolve  was  passed,  "  that  if  any 
person  or  persons  shall  hereafter  import  tea  from  Great 
Britain,  or  if  any  master  or  masters  of  any  vessel  or 
vessels  in  Great  Britain  shall  take  the  same  on  board 


ANNIVERSARY   ADDRESS.  73 

to  be  transported  to  this  place,  until  the  unrighteous 
act  shall  be  repealed,  he,  or  they,  shall  be  deemed  by 
this  body  an  enemy  to  his  country,  and  we  will  prevent 
the  landing  and  sale  of  the  same,  and  the  payment  of 
any  duty  thereon,  and  will  effect  the  return  thereof  to 
the  place  from  whence  it  shall  come."  ^  Copies  of  this 
resolve  were  sent  to  all  the  sea-port  towns  in  the  Prov- 
ince. A  few  days  later,  on  the  night  of  December 
16th,  the  celebrated  tea-party  took  place  in  the  Old 
South  Church  and  on  the  wharves  of  Boston.  In  re- 
sponse to  the  resolve  a  special  town  meeting  was  held 
in  Weymouth  on  Monday,  January  3d,  1774,  at  which 
it  was  resolved  by  a  very  large  majority,  after  some 
debate,  that  the  inhabitants  of  the  town  would  neither 
purchase  nor  make  use  of  any  teas,  excepting  such  as 
they  might  happen  then  to  have  on  hand,  until  Parlia- 
ment repealed  the  odious  duty  upon  it.  On  the  28th 
of  September  the  town  again  met  and  chose  a  repre- 
sentative to  the  General  Court,  which  convened  at 
Salem  on  the  5th  of  October;  no  other  instructions 
were  given  to  him  than  those  adopted  by  Boston  for 
its  own  representatives,  copies  of  which  had  been  freely 
circulated. 

A  committee  had  been  appointed  at  a  town  meeting 
held  in  July  to  procure  signatures  to  the  Joseph  War- 
ren "  Solemn  League  and  Covenant,"  which  had  been 
sent  forth  by  the  Boston  committee  of  correspondence 
on  the  5th  of  June.  This  measure  was  subsequently 
adopted  by  the  Congress  then  sitting  at  Philadelphia, 
and  recommended  under  the  name  of  a  Continental 
Association.  So,  on  the  23d  of  December,  1774,  at  the 
close  of  the  evening  lecture,  the  roll  of  the  inhabitants 
of  Weymouth  was  called,  and  each  man  voted  yea  or 
nay  on  the  question  of  the  approval  of  the  association. 
The  two  precincts  voted  separately;  in  each  one  hun- 

1  Hutchinson,  v.  3,  p.  432. 


74  TWO   HUNDHED  AND   FIFTIETH 

drecl  and  twenty-three  names  were  called,  beginning 
with  the  two  clergymen;  in  the  first  precinct,  one  hun- 
dred and  thirteen  answered  to  their  names,  of  whom 
one  hundred  and  nine  voted  "  yea " ;  in  the  second 
precinct,  out  of  one  hundred  and  three  voting,  not  one 
responded  "  nay."  On  the  30th  of  January  the  town 
asrain  met  and  voted  "  To  bare  the  constables  of  1773 
harmless  in  not  carrying  their  money  to  Haryson  Gray," 
he  being  the  royalist  treasurer  of  the  Province;  and 
further  directed  that  the  funds  on  hand  should  be 
turned  over  to  the  town  treasurer.  On  the  9th  of 
March  this  vote  was  reconsidered,  and  the  money  was 
directed  to  be  paid  to  Henry  Gardner  of  Stow,  who 
now  represented  the  patriot  exchequer.  At  this  meet- 
ing, too,  the  question  was  agitated  of  raising  a  company 
of  minute-men,  but  the  motion  to  that  effect  was  not 
then  carried.  On  the  27th  of  the  same  month,  how- 
ever, another  town  meeting  was  held  and  the  action  of 
the  previous  meeting  was  reconsidered,  the  town  voting 
to  raise  a  company  of  fifty-three  men,  who  were  to  re- 
ceive one  shilling  a  week  each  for  four  weeks,  and  were 
to  be  drilled  two  half  days  a  week.  Upon  the  2d  of 
May  another  town  meeting  was  held,  and  upon  the  9th 
yet  another.  The  affairs  at  Lexington  and  Concord 
had  now  taken  place,  and  the  greatest  anxiety  prevailed 
through  all  the  towns  in  the  vicinity  of  Boston.  They 
were  ever  looking  for  similar  enterprises.  So  at  the 
first  of  these  two  meetings  provision  was  made  for  a 
military  guard  of  fifteen  men,  and  at  the  second  a  com- 
mittee of  correspondence  was  organized,  at  the  head 
of  which  were  placed  Dr.  Tufts  and  Colonel  Lovell. 
Twelve  days  later,  early  on  Sunday,  the  21st  of  May, 
the  news  was  brought  to  the  town  that  three  sloops 
and  a  cutter  had,  during  the  previous  night,  come  down 
from  Boston  and  had  anchored  at  the  mouth  of  the  Fore 
River.     A  landing  was  momentarily  expected,  and  it 


ANNIVERSARY   ADDRESS.  75 

was  even  reported  to  have  taken  place,  and  that  three 
hundred  soldiers  were  advancmg  on  the  town.     Three 
alarm  guns  were  fired,  the  bells  were  rung  and  the 
drums  beat  to  arms.     The  panic  and  confusion  were 
very  great  and  worth  recording,  for  it  is  the  only  time 
in  the  long  history  of  the  town  that  Weymouth  has 
ever  had  cause  to  fear  that  a  civilized  and  disciplined 
foe   was   at   her   threshold.     Every  house   below  the 
present  l!^orth  Weymouth  station  was  deserted  by  the 
women  and   children.      Mr.  Smith's  family  fled  from 
the  old  parsonage,  and  Dr.  Tufts'  wife  being  ill  at  the 
time,  had  a  bed  thrown  into  a  cart,  and,  putting  herself 
upon  it,  was  driven  to  Bridgewater  as  a  place  of  se- 
curity ;  and,  indeed,  tradition  says  that  other  ladies  of 
Weymouth  gave  evidence  that  morning  of  an  abundant 
vitality,  and  displayed  truly  remarkable  powers  of  loco- 
motion.   Meanwhile  Dr.  Tufts  himself  was  busy  serving 
out  rations  and  supplying  ammunition  to  the  minute- 
men,  who  poured  rapidly  in  from  Ilingham  and  Kan- 
dolph  and  Braintree   and  all  the  neighboring  towns, 
until  nearly  2,000  of  them  were  on  the  ground.     Then 
it  was  discovered  that  the  enemy  were  only  foraging, 
and  were  engaged  in  removing  hay  from  Grape  Island . 
By  the  time  they  had  secured  about  three  tons,  the 
minute-men  had   brought  a  sloop    and  lighter  round 
from  Hingham  on  which  they  put  out  for  the  island, 
whereupon  the  enemy  decamped.^    It  was  a  mere  alarm 
in  which  no  one  was  hurt,  but  it  showed  the  spirit  of 
the  town  even  though  it  only  resulted  in  the  destruction 
of  the  hay,  which  doubtless  Gen.  Ward's  army  needed, 
and  which,  had  they  been  older  soldiers,  the  minute- 
men  would  have  brought  away  instead  of  burning. 

Towards  the  middle  of  July  again,  a  small  party, 
among  whom  was  Captain  Goold  of  the  Weymouth 
company,  with  twenty-five  of  his  men,  went  out  from 

1  Letters  of  Mrs.  Adams,  pp.  26,  33. 


76  TWO   HUNDRED   AND   FIFTIETH 

the  Moon  Head  and  burned  a  house  and  a  barn  full  of 
hay  on  Long  Island.  On  this  occasion  they  had  a 
sharp  skirmish,  for  the  British  men-of-war  lying  in  the 
harbor  sent  out  their  cutters  to  intercept  the  party. 
They  all,  however,  got  back  safely  except  one  man  of 
the  covering  force  on  Moon  Head,  who  was  killed  by  a 
cannon-ball.  That  night  a  sloop  of  war  dropped  down 
to  the  Fore  River,  but  attempted  nothing  beyond  creat- 
ing another  alarm.  And  this  experience  from  time  to 
time  was  repeated,  until  at  last,  in  the  spring  of  1775, 
Boston  was  evacuated;  and  upon  the  14th  of  June  fol- 
lowing, in  consequence  of  military  movements  on  the 
islands  in  the  harbor,  the  last  remnant  of  the  British 
fleet  put  to  sea,  and  the  towns  bordering  on  the  bay 
were  thereafter  allowed  to  rest  in  peace. 

During  the  year  1775  ten  town  meetings  had  been 
held  in  Weymouth,  and  seven  were  held  in  1776.  And 
now  we  enter  on  a  new  phase  of  the  struggle  for  inde- 
pendence. For  us,  with  our  recollections  of  the  war  of 
the  rebellion  still  fresh  in  our  memories,  it  is  most  curi- 
ous to  read  these  ancient  records,  —  to  observe  how 
closely  history  repeats  itself.  We  well  remember  the 
fierce,  self-sacrificing  patriotism  of  1861,  —  how  the 
country  was  all  alive  with  eagerness,  how  money  was 
poured  forth  like  water,  and  how  regiments  enlisted 
faster  than  they  could  be  put  into  the  field.  We  re- 
member how  this  lasted  through  a  short  six  months, 
and  how  we  then  began  to  realize  what  war  meant. 
Then  bounties  began  to  be  paid,  —  then  enlistments 
grew  more  difficult  just  in  proportion  as  the  call  for 
men  became  more  pressing,  —  then  values  were  unset- 
tled, prices  rose,  the  feverish  glow  of  excitement  faded 
away,  and  stern-visaged  war  gradually  assumed  her 
whole  hateful  front.  We  generally,  too,  are  apt  to 
imagine  that  the  earlier  days  were  less  selfish,  more 
self-sacrificing,  more  harmonious  than  our  own.     The 


ANNIVERSARY    ADDRESS.  77 

records  tell  a  diflferent  story.  The  declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence had  only  just  been  ventured  upon,  —  it  was 
not  yet  entered  upon  the  records  of  Weymouth,  ''  there 
to  remain  as  a  perpetual  memorial,"  —  when  on  the  15th 
of  July,  1776,  a  town  meeting  was  held  to  secure  the 
enlistment  of  ten  men  for  the  continental  army,  that 
being  the  quota  of  the  town.  It  was  voted  to  raise 
£130,  in  order  to  give  each  recruit  a  town  bounty  of 
£ld  in  addition  to  the  state  bounty  of  £7,  —  making  a 
bounty  of  £20  to  each  man.  It  was  also  voted  to  al- 
low the  citizens  of  Weymouth  two  days  in  which  to 
enlist,  after  which  a  committee  of  two  was  to  go  forth 
in  search  of  recruits  elsewhere.  But  before  the  22d  of 
the  month  eight  men  more  were  called  for,  and  so  at  its 
adjourned  meeting  the  town  had  to  increase  its  appro- 
priation to  £234,  a  portion  of  which  sum  was  borrowed 
of  Captain  James  White  for  one  year,  —  being  the 
earliest  record  of  a  Weymouth  town  debt.^ 

1  The  history  of  this  loan  is  curious  and  suggestive.  It  may  be  traced 
through  the  following  entries  in  the  town  records. 

July  22,  1776.  "  Voted  that  the  Town  Treasurer  Borrow  the  afforesaid 
sum  of  £234  &  give  the  Towns  security  with  Interest  for  the  Same." 

"July  23d  1776  the  Town  Treasurer  Borrowed  of  Capt  James  White 
£130  and  gave  the  Towns  Security  to  pay  the  same  in  twelve  months  with 
interest." 

April  7,  1788.  "  Voted  to  allow  unto  Captain  James  White  the  Deprea- 
tion  on  some  money  that  he  lent  to  the  Town. 

"  Whereas  in  the  year  1776  Capt.  James  White  lent  the  Town  £130  and 
took  it  in  again  in  1778,  and  Took  only  the  nominal  Sum,  —  the  Town  Voted 
that  Capt.  White  should  have  the  Depreation  that  was  on  money  when  Capt. 
White's  money  was  in  the  hands  of  the  Town.  Said  Term  of  Time  will  be 
made  to  appear  by  a  Receipt  from  Capt.  Whitman. 

"  Voted  that  any  others  that  are  under  like  Circumstances  with  Capt. 
White,  that  have  Lent  Money  to  the  Town  and  have  Taken  it  in  again,  that 
they  be  allowed  the  Depreation  that  was  on  money  while  theres  was  in  the 
Hands  of  the  Town. 

"  Nathl  Bayley  Esq.  Honie  James  Humphrey  Esq.  &  Col.  Asa  White  were 
Chosen  a  Committee  for  the  above  purpose  of  Settleing  the  Depreation  with 
Capt.  James  White  and  others." 

May  13,  1783.  "  A  motion  was  made  and  Seconded  to  Reconsider  a  Vote 
that  was  past  at  a  town  meeting  on  April  the  7th  with  regard  to  making  up 
the  Depreceation  to  Capt.  James  White  and  others  that  lent  money  to  the 
town  and  reed  it  again  in  the  Nominal  Sum  and  it  passed  in  favour  of  Ke- 
considering  of  Said  Vote." 


78  TWO   HUNDRED    AND    FIFTIETH 

To  the  "Weymouth  of  that  day  these  eighteen  men 
were  the  equivalent  of  about  one  hundred  and  thirty 
now;  and  they  were  raised  to  take  part  in  the  unfortu- 

September  16,  1783.  "  A  Town  Meeting  in  Consequence  of  Capt.  James 
White's  Commencing  an  action  on  the  Town. 

"  A  motion  was  made  and  Seconded  to  no  if  it  was  the  minds  of  the 
People  to  stand  Capt.  White  in  the  Law  and  it  passed  in  favor  of  it. 

"  Voted  to  Chuse  Two  agents  to  act  in  Behalf  of  the  Town  against  Capt. 
James  White,  even  to  final  Judgment  and  Execution. 

"  The  Hone  Cotton  Tufts  Esq  &  Solomon  Lovell  Esq  ware  Chosen  (committee) 
for  the  above  purpose. 

"Voted  that  the  ajents  be  impowered  to  Draw  Money  out  of  the  Town 
Treasury  to  Defend  the  Town  against  Capt.  White  even  to  final  Judgment 
and  Execution  they  to  Render  an  accompt  how  they  disposed  of  the  money. 

"  Voted  to  adjourn  the  meeting  to  the  22nd  of  this  instant  Sepbr  at  of 
the  Clock  in  the  afternoon." 

"  Sepbr  22d  1783.  Meet  at  the  adjournment,  and  as  neither  of  the  ajents 
had  Taken  the  advice  of  a  Lawyer  Voted  to  adjourn  to  monday  29th  of  this 
instant  September  at  10  of  the  Clock  foornoon." 

"  Sepbr  29th  1783  meet  on  the  adjournment  and  further  adjourned  to 
October  6th  1783." 

"  October  6th  1783,  meet  on  the  adjournment.     Voted  that  the  ajents  (if 

occation  for  it)  appeal  to  the  Superior  Court  at  february  Next,     the  Meeting 

Dissolved." 

"  Weymouth  March  the  8th  1784. 

"  the  Agents  appointed  to  defend  the  Town  in  an  action  brought  by  Capt. 
James  White,  on  a  Note  paid  him  in  Paper  money;  found  that  the  Town 
was  not  in  a  Capacity  to  tender  the  money  for  the  Note  of  Hand  due  —  and 
therefore  that  the  Costs  and  Charges  of  Court  would  fall  upon  the  Town, 
whether  the  Demand  for  Depreciation  on  Said  note  paid  was  finally  Decided 
in  his  Favour  or  not,  —  they  also  found  that  a  much  heaver  Expence  to  the 
Town  would  arise  from  Carrying  on  the  Suit  to  final  Judgment  than  they 
Concieved  that  the  Town  was  aware  off  —  this  induced  your  Agents  to  Listen 
to  Some  Proposals  made  by  Capt  White :  (Viz)  To  Pay  the  Cost  that  had 
then  arisen,  to  allow  him  Compound  Interest  on  his  Note  that  was  due  and 
to  Estimate  the  Depreciation  thereon  from  the  mouth  of  June  his  note  be- 
ing Dated  the  first  of  July.  He  alledging  that  notwithstanding  as  their  was 
but  one  Day  that  made  the  Difference;  it  was  hard  that  the  whole  month  of 
July  should  be  taken  in  for  the  Estimate  —  they  accordingly  made  the  Cal- 
culation and  Certified  the  same  to  the  Town  Treasurer,  who  Settled  with 
Capt.  James  White  Conformably  thereunto,  and  the  Action  was  dropt  never 
having  had  a  Tryall.  As  youre  Agents  conducted  in  this  matter,  as  they 
Apprehended  for  the  best  Interest  of  the  Town  they  flatter  themselves  that 
their  Conduct  will  meet  with  the  Approbation  of  the  Town,  and  that  the 
Town  will  Confirm  the  Doeings  of  their  Treasurer  thereon. 

The  Honble  Cotton  Tufts  Esqr    )  ^  ^^^^ 
Gen.  Solomon  Lovell  Esqr  ( 
"  The  Above  Report  Accepted  by  the  Town. 

John  Tirrel  Toivn  Clerk  " 

The  depreciation  in  paper  money  between  July,  177C,  and  the  same  month 
in  1778,  had  been  from  par  to  6.30  to  1. 


ANNIVERSARY  ADDRESS.  T9 

nate  Canada  campaign  under  Arnold  and  Montgomery. 
How  many  of  them  ever  retnrned  we  cannot  tell,  but 
the  weary  sons  of  Weymouth  m  1776  doubtless  found 
final  restmg-places  m  the  wilds  of  Maine  or  beneath 
the  snows  of  Canada,  as  more  recently  they  found 
them  in  the  swamps  of  the  Chickahominy  or  beneath 
the  torrid  sun  of  Louisiana.  By  December  of  that  year 
twenty-two  more  men  went  into  the  continental  service, 
under  Lieutenant  Kingman ;  and  now  the  bounty  was 
three  pounds  per  month  for  three  months.^  It  was 
shortly  before  this  time  that  a  Weymouth-born  woman, 
writing  from  the  next  town  of  Braintree,  thus  described 
the  aspect  of  affairs :  "  I  am  sorry  to  see  a  spirit  so  venal 
prevailing  everywhere.  When  our  men  were  drawn 
out  for  Canada  a  very  large  bounty  was  given  them; 
and  now  another  call  is  made  upon  us,  no  one  will  go 
without  a  large  bounty,  though  only  for  two  months, 
and  each  town  seems  to  think  its  honor  engaged  out- 
bidding the  others.  The  province  pay  is  forty  shill- 
ings. In  addition  to  that  this  town  voted  to  make  it 
up  six  pounds.  They  then  draw  out  the  persons  most 
unlikely  to  go,  and  they  are  obliged  to  give  three  pounds 
to  hire  a  man.  Some  pay  the  whole  fine,  ten  pounds. 
Forty  men  are  now  drafted  from  this  town.  More  than 
one-half,  from  sixteen  to  fifty,  are  now  in  the  service. 
This  method  of  conducting  will  create  a  general  un- 
easiness in  the  Continental  army.  I  hardly  think  you 
can  be  sensible  how  much  we  are  thinned  in  this  prov- 
ince." ^ 

And  now  a  new  difiiculty,  with  which  our  generation 
has  been  sadly  familiar,  was  added  to  the  heavy  load 
under  which  the  unfledged  nationality  was  compelled 
to  stagger.  The  value  of  its  paper  currency  had 
hitherto  been  sustained;  but  at  last,  in  the  face  of  ever- 

^Becords,  Monday,  December  23,  1776. 
2 Letters  of  Mrs.  Adams  (ed.  1848),  p.  82. 


80  TWO   HUNDRED   AND   FIFTIETH 

increasing  new  issnes,  it  began  to  depreciate,  and  by 
the  close  of  the  year  1776  it  had  fallen  one-sixth  in 
value.  In  vain  does  Congress  enact  that  whoever  pays 
or  receives  the  currency  at  a  rate  less  than  its  nominal 
value  shall  not  only  be  accounted  a  public  enemy,  but 
shall  forfeit  the  amount  involved  in  such  unpatriotic 
transaction.  In  defiance  of  law  prices  steadily  rise. 
In  January,  1777,  the  Legislature  of  Massachusetts 
went  even  further,  and  passed  a  measure  entitled  "  An 
Act  to  prevent  Monopoly  and  Oppression."  Under 
this  the  selectmen  of  Weymouth,  aided  by  a  committee 
of  their  townsmen,  proceeded  to  fix  a  tariff  of  prices  at 
which  articles  were  to  be  sold.  It  is  a  sad  record.  The 
efibrt  was,  of  course,  a  futile  one,  but  it  was  made ;  and 
there  it  stands  "  as  a  perpetual  memorial,"  beginning 
with  Indian  corn  and  ending  with  cedar-posts,  a  monu- 
ment of  the  wretched  expedients  to  which  sensible  men 
will  resort  in  troublous  and  unsettled  times. 

The  call  was  now  for  three-year  men,  and  the  town 
bounty  was  eight  pounds  per  annum.  But  some  of 
the  enlisted  men  had  deserted,  under  the  discourage- 
ment of  the  Long  Island  reverses,  and  none  the  less 
they  claimed  their  bounties.  The  action  of  the  town 
meeting  seems  to  have  been  hardly  consistent  with  the 
usually  received  ideas  of  military  discipline,  for  it  was 
voted  to  pay  "  those  who  deserted  and  came  home  be- 
fore their  times  were  up  "  four  pounds  apiece,  on  the 
report  of  a  committee,  to  which  the  town  added  a 
further  sum  of  forty  shilUngs.  But  the  whole  story  is 
told  in  the  following  extract  from  the  record  of  May 
21st,  1777:  "Yoted  that  Col.  Solomon  Lovell,  Lieut. 
E.  Cushing  &  Dea"*  Samuel  Blancher  be  a  Committee 
to  go  out  of  Town  to  Hire  men  for  the  Contenential 
army  for  the  Term  of  three  years,  —  and  that  they  be 
directed  to  git  them  as  Cheep  as  they  can,  —  and  that 
noe  one  of  them  be  allowed  to  give  more  than  Thirty 


ANNIVERSATtY   ADDRESS.  81 

pounds  for  a  man  without  the  advise  of  another  of  the 
committee." 

Throughout  the  long  war  the  people  would  not  con- 
sent to  a  draft.  They  resorted  to  ever}^  expedient  and 
makeshift,  but  they  could  not  bring  themselves  to  the 
one  single  expedient  by  which  only  can  war  be  made 
decisive.  In  September,  1777,  a  draft  was  suggested,^ 
but  the  idea  met  with  no  favor:  again  recourse  was  had 
to  bounties,  which  were  now  £100  in  lawful  money,  or 
forty  shillings  a  month  in  produce  at  prices  which 
ruled  before  the  war. 

The  year  1779  must,  however,  have  been  much  the 
gloomiest  year  of  all  to  Weymouth,  for  it  was  in  this 
year  that  the  State  of  Massachusetts  undertook  the 
unfortunate  Penobscot  expedition.  The  land  forces 
were  commanded  by  the  brave  and  popular  Solomon 
Lovell,  and  naturally  must  have  numbered  in  their 
ranks  many  Weymouth  men.  It  encountered  only 
disaster  and  loss,  and  added  heavily  to  the  already 
grievous  burdens  of  the  war.  The  commander  of  the 
naval  contingent  was  court-martialled,  but  no  question 
was  made  as  to  General  Lovell's  conduct.  Meanwhile 
prices  were  rising,  and  now  $4,500  was  voted,  where- 
with to  raise  nine  men.  It  had  also  become  very  evi- 
dent that  the  tariff  of  prices  fixed  by  the  selectmen  and 
the  committee  of  the  town,  two  years  and  a  half  before, 
was  somewhat  oat  of  date,  as,  its  provisions  to  the  con- 
trary notwithstanding,  butcher's  meat  was  now  a  dollar 
a  pound,  corn  twenty-five  dollars  per  bushel  and  labor 

1  The  nearest  apj)roach  made  to  a  draft  is  found  in  the  following  vote  :  — 

"  June  19th.  1780 

"  Voted  that  the  assessors  be  desired  to  set  off  the  Inhabitants  as  near 
as  they  can  into  twenty  Parsols  or  Districts  as  they  Stand  in  the  Tax  Bill 
for  Polls  and  Estates  and  each  District  to  be  obliged  to  get  a  Man  to  go  into 
the  Servis  and  if  any  one  in  said  district  shall  refuse  to  go  or  to  pay  his  Pro- 
portion according  to  what  he  pays  Taxes  the  Capt.  of  the  Company  to  which 
he  belongs  be  Desired  to  draft  said  Person  and  return  him  as  a  Drafted 
Man."     Becord. 


82  TWO   HUNDRED   AND   FIFTIETH 

eight  dollars  per  day.  Still  the  good  people  were  not 
discouraged,  but  a  new  committee  was  set  to  work,  and 
again,  by  a  large  majority,  a  tariff  of  prices  was  estab- 
lished; but  at  the  same  town  meeting  which  adopted  it 
$9,000  was  voted  to  procure  recruits.  Indeed,  the 
figures  now  become  colossal,  and  in  September,  1780, 
the  town  votes  £5,000  for  the  support  of  schools  and 
£15,000  "  to  pay  the  three  months  men,  if  wanted  for 
that  purpose,  if  not,  for  other  town  charges."  ISTor  was 
this  all.  The  new  State  government  was  now  organ- 
ized, and  John  Hancock  had  been  elected  Governor, 
receiving,  in  Weymouth,  twenty-nine  votes  to  eleven 
for  James  Bowdoin;  but  one  of  the  first  acts  of  the 
Legislature  was  to  allot  among  the  vai'ious  towns  a 
quota  of  beef  to  be  supplied  as  well  as  men,  so  the  year 
1780  closes  with  these  two  melancholy  entries  in  the 
records  of  this  poor  little  town,  casting  forty  votes  at 
the  annual  election:  — 

"  Voted  to  raise  one  hundred  and  thirty  thousand  dol- 
lars of  the  old  currency  to  procure  the  beef  set  on  the 
town  by  the  General  Court." 

"  Voted  to  give  fifty  hard  dollars  a  year  for  any  one 
or  more  men  that  shall  engage  for  this  town  for  three 
year  in  the  Continental  Servis." 

"  Gen.  Lovell,  Cap*  Kash,  Capt.  Whitman  &  Lt  Yin- 
son  chosen  a  Com®®  to  hire  tHe  Nineteen  men  set  on  this 
town." 

Of  course  the  Continental  currency  was  now  almost 
wholly  discredited,  having  fallen  to  seventy-five  for  one, 
and  Weymouth  instructed  its  representative  to  use  his 
influence  "  that  the  act  called  the  Tender  Act  should  be 
repealed."  But  its  repeal  was  of  little  consequence; 
the  coimtry  had  gotten  back  to  hard  money  by  the  radi- 
cal course  of  rendering  all  other  money  worthless.     In 


ANNIVERSARY  ADDRESS.  83 

1781  Weymouth  had  also  returned  to  the  old  tax  figures, 
raising  £60  for  the  support  of  schools  and  £160  for 
all  other  expenses ;  but  the  burden  of  recruiting  grew 
heavier  and  heavier,  and  in  October,  1781,  it  was 
"Voted  to  give  the  committee  for  hiring  soldiers  dis- 
cretionary power  to  hire  them  upon  the  best  terms  they 
can,"  and  $2,500,  "  hard  dollars,"  were  appropriated  for 
the  purpose. 

Fortunately  the  long  trial  now  drew  near  its  close. 
The  towns  of  Massachusetts  were  thoroughly  ex- 
hausted and  neither  men  nor  money  could  be  pro- 
cured. In  spite  of  the  large  sums  offered,  recruits  were 
no  longer  forthcoming,  and  finally  Weymouth  as  one 
of  many  delinquent  towns,  became  liable  to  a  heavy 
fine.  The  wonder,  however,  was  not  that  the  towns 
were  delinquent,  but  rather  where  they  found  so  many 
able-bodied  men  as  they  then  supplied.  Weymouth,  at 
that  time,  could  not  well  have  mustered  over  two  hun- 
dred men  of  the  age  of  military  service.  The  record 
would  seem  to  establish  the  fact  that  more  than  one- 
tenth  of  these  were  annually  called  for.  Such  a  strain 
could  not  long  have  been  sustained;  but  the  dogged 
tenacity  of  the  people  was  equal  to  the  burden  they 
were  called  upon  to  bear,  and  it  is  pleasant  to  find, 
almost  before  the  struggle  was  over,  the  process  of  re- 
cuperation begun,  and  the  town  on  the  20th  of  Novem- 
ber, 1782,  voting  £300  for  the  purpose  of  partly  paying 
its  debts. 

With  the  close  of  the  long  struggle  for  independence 
ends  the  second  period  in  the  history  of  Weymouth. 
More  than  ninety  years  have  since  passed  away,  carry- 
ing with  them  three  generations  of  the  children  of  the 
soil.  They  have  been  years  of  great  development  and 
of  healthy  growth,  —  not  such  development  nor  such 
growth  as  is  often  seen  in  this  country,  —  nothing,  in- 


84  TWO   HUNDRED   AND   FIFTIETH 

deed,  which  in  our  age  may  be  called  remarkable,  for 
almost  any  active  and  bustling  railroad  centre  in  the 
Western  States  can  boast  of  greater  census  figures;  but 
the  growth  of  Weymouth  has  been  that  of  a  thrifty,  in- 
dustrious ISTew  England  town,  and  when,  after  the  long- 
lapse  of  ages,  the  final  account  is  rendered,  who  shall 
say  that  the  former  growth  will  be  found  better  than 
the  latter? 

In  1782  Weymouth  was  still  an  agricultural  com- 
munity, —  its  people  were  scattered  over  its  wide  ter- 
ritory and  it  scarcely  contained  within  its  limits  any 
cluster  of  houses  worthy  of  the  name  of  village.  In 
the  state  election  of  that  year  fifty-one  votes  were  cast, 
and  the  sum  raised  by  taxation  to  defray  the  annual  ex- 
penses of  the  town  was  the  equivalent  of  $1,230.  It 
contains  now  four  separate  villages  within  its  limits, 
each  one  far  more  populous  and  more  wealthy  than  the 
entire  town  then  was;  its  annual  levy  exceeds  $85,000, 
and  at  its  elections  it  casts  1,200  votes. 

It  is  now  fifty  years  since  the  learned  editor  of  Gov- 
ernor Winthrop's  History  of  I^ew  England  remarked 
that  "  a  careful  history  of  Weymouth  is  much  needed."^ 
The  want  is  still  felt.  To  me  the  preparation  of  this 
hasty  sketch  of  the  earlier  days  has  been  a  work  of 
great  enjoyment.  I  have  had  to  deal  with  Mount  Wol- 
laston  and  with  Weymouth,  those  twin  settlements  in 
the  first  infancy  of  New  England  life,  and  in  the  his- 
tory of  each  I  could  not  do  otherwise  than  take  a  deep 
hereditary  interest.  It  was  at  Mount  Wollaston,  close 
to  the  spot  where  once  stood  the  May-pole  of  the  wild 
Morton,  that  John  Quincy  lived  and  died,  —  it  was  in 
the  old  parsonage  of  Weymouth,  almost  witliin  a  stone's 
throw  of  the  site  of  Weston's  plantation,  that  John 
Adams  was  married  to  the  grand-daughter  of  that 
John  Quincy.     jS^evertheless,  no  degree  of  personal  in- 

1  Savage's  Wintbrop,  v.  1,  p.  163. 


ANNIVERSARY  ADDRESS.  85 

terest  can  convert  a  hurried  sketch  into  a  careful  his- 
tory, and  Weymouth  deserves  no  less.  JSTor  should  the 
story  of  later  development  remain  untold.  It  neces- 
sarily lacks,  indeed,  those  elements  of  strangeness,  of 
remoteness  and  of  mystery,  which  lend  their  charm 
to  the  earlier  periods  which  we  have  considered  to- 
day, but  the  record  is  none  the  less  of  sufficing 
interest. 

The  children  of  Weymouth,  during  the  present  cen- 
tury, have  gone  forth  in  peace  and  in  war,  and  are  now 
scattered  all  over  the  common  country,  and,  indeed, 
over  the  civilized  world.  Her  children,  too,  remaining 
at  home,  have  altered  and  diversified  the  old  town  until 
the  fathers  would  know  it  no  longer.  It  must  be  for 
others  to  recount  these  changes  of  the  later  years.  I 
prefer  to  leave  the  narrative  on  the  threshold  of  the 
new  era  and  before  the  old  order  of  things  had  yet  be- 
gun to  pass  away, —  while  a  fresher  and  a  purer  air 
still  hung  around  the  Great  Hill,  and  while  a  certain 
fragrance  of  the  primeval  forest  gathered  about  Whit- 
man's pond.  I  prefer  to  leave  it  while  Joshua  Bates, 
newly  come  back  from  the  continental  army,  a  colonel 
of  artillery  at  twenty-eight,  was  meditating  those  busy 
enterprises  which  were  destined  to  infuse  a  new  life 
into  his  native  town;  and  I  shall  not  seek  to  follow 
that  other  Joshua  Bates,  then  unborn,  whose  destiny  it 
was  to  migrate  back  to  the  mother  country,  and  there 
in  fullness  of  time  to  die  at  the  head  of  the  first  com- 
mercial firm  of  London  or  the  world.  We  leave  Wey- 
mouth just  emerging,  weak  but  alive  yet,  from  the  long 
ordeal  of  an  eight  years'  war,  and  entering  on  a  more 
prosperous  career;  we  leave  it  while  brave  old  Briga- 
dier Lovell  yet  viewed  his  broad  acres  from  the  summit 
of  King-Oak  Hill,  — while  Dr.  Cotton  Tufts  still  served 
the  town  whether  at  the  bedsides  of  the  sick  or  in  the 
councils  of  the  State,  and  ere  yet  the  grass  had  grown 


86  ANNIVERSARY   ADDRESS. 

over  the  new-made  grave  of  the  good  old  Parson  Smith. 
Two  centnries  and  a  half  of  mnnicipal  life  are  now 
completed,  and  in  celebrating  the  event  of  to-day 
may  we  not  fitly  close  with  the  earnest  hope  that  the 
succeeding  years  may  be  as  blessed  as  those  which 
are  past,  —  that  unity,  virtue  and  good-will  may  long 
find  their  abode  within  the  limits  of  the  ancient  town, 
and  that,  even  more  in  the  future  than  in  the  past, 
"  may  peace  be  within  thy  walls  and  prosperity  within 
thy  palaces." 


WEYMOUTH  IN  ITS  FIRST  TWENTY  YEARS, 

A   PAPER   READ   BEFORE   THE   SOCIETY, 
NOVEMBER,    1882, 


GILBEET    NASI-I,  Esq., 

SECRETARY, 


I^OT  long  since,  the  statement  was  made  by  one  of 
our  leading  journals,  that  the  first  church  in  Weymouth 
was  formed  in  1635  ;^*  and  an  inquiry  for  the  authority 
for  such  a  statement  elicited  the  following  reply:  "The 
Massachusetts  Colonial  Records  [1 :  149]  state,  under 
date  of  8  July,  1635,  that  '  there  is  leave  granted  to 
twenty-one  fiamilyes  to  sitt  down  at  Wessaguscus.' 
Gov.  Winthrop  in  his  Journal  [1 :  194]  says,  '  at  the 
court  [5  mo.  8]  Wessaguscus  was  made  a  plantation, 
a  Mr.  Hull,  a  minister  in  England,  and  twenty  one 
families  with  him,  allowed  to  sit  down  there  —  after 
called  Weymouth.'  'No  explicit  mention  is  here  made 
of  the  first  formation  of  the  church  in  this  connection 
but  in  lack  of  evidence  of  previous  embodiment,  it  has 
always  been  assumed  to  have  been  coetaneous  with  the 
settlement  of  the  town  —  or  nearly  so  —  following  the 

*The  Old  North  Church  of  Weymouth  was  organized  Jan.  30,  1638/9. 
The  diary  of  the  Rev.  Peter  Hobart,  the  minister  at  Hingham,  Mass.,  from 
1635  to  1679,  reads:  "Jan.  30,  1639,  [N.  S.]  A  church  gathered  at  Wey- 
mouth." (From  a  paper  on  "The  Organization  of  the  Old  North  Church 
of  Weymouth,"  read  before  the  Weymouth  Historical  Society,  Feb.  24, 
1904,  by  George  W.  Chamberlain,  and  published  in  the  Weymouth  Gazette, 
March  18,  following.) 


so  "WEYMOUTH   IN   ITS 

general  rule.  Mr.  Savage  in  his  list  of  the  early 
churches  of  Massachusetts  puts  it  down  thus :  '  xi. 
Weymouth,  1635,  July.'  The  very  careful  and  accu- 
rate Dr.  Clark  [Con'l  ch'hs  of  Mass.,  16]  says:  *  The 
same  year  (1635)  about  twenty  families  located  in 
Weymouth,  from  which  the  First  church  in  that  town 
was  constituted,  and  Rev.  Joseph  Hull  settled  over 
them.'  It  is  of  course  true  that  there  were  religious 
services,  and  possibly  a  church  at  Weymouth  before 
this,  but  we  are  aware  of  no  evidence  carrying  the  life 
of  the  church  now  existent  back  of  1635." 

This  may  or  may  not  be  the  true  date  at  which  the 
church  was  formed.  The  evidence  given  in  the  fore- 
going article  to  establish  the  fact  certainly  does  not 
prove  this,  nor  does  it  afford  reasonable  ground  for  its 
probability,  and  is  anything  but  satisfactory  to  the  least 
critical  inquirer.  If  it  proves  anything  it  proves  too 
much,  for,  while  it  admits  the  lack  of  positive  evidence 
upon  the  question,  it  makes  an  admission  which  will  go 
far  to  overthrow  its  own  position.  It  says :  "  In  lack 
of  evidence  of  previous  embodiment,  it  has  always  been 
assumed  to  have  been  coetaneous  with  the  settlement 
of  the  town  —  or  nearly  so  —  following  the  general 
rule," 

Here  are  two  points  admitted,  and  the  Journal  men- 
tioned should  be  good  authority  upon  which  to  rest 
them.  First,  the  lack  of  positive  evidence,  from  which 
the  necessary  inference  is  that  we  must  fall  back  upon 
probability  or  conjecture,  as  the  basis  of  our  judgment 
in  the  case.  Second,  that,  as  a  general  rule,  churches 
were  formed  at  the  time  settlements  were  begun,  or 
soon  after.  Without  question  the  latter  statement  is 
correct.  The  well  known  character  and  habits  of  the 
early  emigrants,  and  the  facts  that  have  come  to  us  in 
connection  with  them,  prove  this  beyond  a  doubt.  If, 
then,  it  can  be  proved  that  Weymouth  was  a  prosper- 


FIRST  TWENTY   YEARS.  89 

ous  settlement  at  a  much  earlier  date  than  that  assumed 
for  it,  1635,  we  shall  go  far  to  prove  the  probability,  at 
least,  of  an  earlier  church  organization.  And  this 
brings  us  to  the  subject  of  the  present  paper,  namely, 
What  are  our  facts  relative  to  the  early  settlement  of 
the  town,  and  how  do  they  concern  the  church  and  its 
ministers  ? 

The  very  general  assumption  that  there  was  no  per- 
manent settlement  in  Weymouth,  (using  the  name  by 
which  the  town  has  since  been  known),  previous  to 
the  arrival  of  the  Hull  company,  in  1635,  can  hardly 
be  sustained  in  face  of  the  very  strong  evidence  to  the 
contrary.  C.  F.  Adams,  Jr.,  Esq.,  in  his  address  deliv- 
ered 4  July,  1874,  at  the  celebration  of  the  two  hun- 
dred and  fiftieth  anniversary  of  the  settlement  of  the 
town,  and  iu  his  paper  on  the  "  Old  Planters  about 
Boston  Harbor,"  read  before  the  Massachusetts  Histori- 
cal Society,  and  published  in  its  collections,  "  the  ablest 
paper,"  says  Kev.  George  E.  Ellis,  D.  D.,  no  mean 
judge  of  such  matters,  "  ever  read  before  that  Society," 
proves  conclusively  that  the  Gorges  company,  which 
settled  upon  the  deserted  plantations  of  Thomas 
Weston's  people,  in  September,  1623,  and  which,  it  has 
been  usually  thought,  was  wholly  broken  up  in  the  fol- 
lowing spring,  left  a  number  of  its  emigrants  there,  who 
remained  and  became  permanent  settlers.  These  were 
joined  from  time  to  time  by  single  families  or  small 
companies,  until,  upon  the  ariival  of  Mr.  Hull's  com- 
pany, the  settlement  had  attained  to  quite  i-espectable 
proportions. 

This  ground  has  been  so  carefully  covered  by  Mr. 
Adams  in  the  papers  before  mentioned,  that  it  will  be 
necessary  only  to  mention  very  briefly  the  main  facts, 
and  to  sustain  them  by  such  other  evidence  as  may  be 
had  from  the  court  and  town  records,  as  well  as  from 
private  sources. 


90  WEYMOUTH   IN  ITS 

A  careful  analysis  of  these  records  will  show  that, 
instead  of  the  company  from  Weymouth,  England,  in 
1635,  being  the  first  settlers,  there  were,  at  the  date  of 
its  arrival,  certainly  not  less  than  fifty  families,  and 
perhaps  seventy  or  eighty,  already  residing  there;  and 
it  is  more  than  possible  that  this  was  an  important 
reason  why  this  place  was  selected  by  this  company 
for  its  settlement.  A  flourishing  colony  already  estab- 
lished, was  sufficient  evidence  of  good  soil,  a  good 
location,  a  favorable  position  for  trade  with  the  Indians, 
and  for  communication  with  the  other  plantations  about 
the  bay;  besides,  and  this  was  no  insignificant  matter 
in  those  days,  the  protection  thus  afforded  against  the 
savages. 

More  than  this,  it  is  probable  that  many  of  the  pre- 
vious settlers  were  relatives  or  friends  of  the  later 
arrivals.  Lenthal,  in  his  remarks  before  the  Dorches- 
ter Council  in  1639,  says  that  many  of  his  former  peo- 
ple had  preceded  him,  giving  this  as  a  reason  why  he 
came  to  Weymouth.  The  similarity  of  name,  and  the 
localities  of  some  whose  former  residences  are  known, 
give  color  to  this  probability;  and  the  name  Wey- 
mouth, given  at  this  time,  1635,  to  the  plantation,  may 
not  be  wholly  owing  to  the  influx  of  new  people,  sailing 
from  Weymouth,  in  Dorset,  but  to  the  calling  up  of 
old  memories  in  the  minds  of  previous  settlers,  who, 
years  before,  sailed  from  the  same  port  and  perhaps 
lived  there. 

An  examination  of  the  public  records  will  afford 
evidence,  surprising  in  value  and  volume,  of  this  early 
and  continued  settlement.  Although  the  earliest  rec- 
ord in  the  archives  of  the  town  bears  date  10  Decem- 
ber, 1636,  and  very  few  entries  are  prior  to  1614-5,  yet 
there  are  those  undated  that  are  probably  earlier,  and 
these,  with  the  evidence  reflected  from  later  dates, 
toi^Tther  with    corroboi'ation  received  from  other  and 


FIRST   TWENTY  YEARS,  91 

contemporaneous  sources,  give  additional  and  strong 
proof  in  support  of  the  same. 

Thus  we  have  the  Grorges  colony  in  1623,  the  arrival 
of  a  new  company  from  Weymouth,  England,  the  fol- 
lowing year,  the  capture  of  Moj'ton  in  1628,  the  visit 
of  Gov.  Winthrop  in  1632,  the  tax  lists  of  the  Massa- 
chusetts Bay  Colony  for  1630  and  onwards,  which  in- 
clude Wessaguscus,  and  the  incidental  mention  from 
contemporaneous  sources  covering  nearly  all  of  the 
intervening  time.  These  afford  a  firm  basis  upon  which 
to  rest  an  earlier  settlement  than  that  of  the  Hull 
company.  Later  on,  and  still  previous  to  that  arrival, 
we  learn  from  the  colonial  records  that  in  March,  1635, 
the  bounds  between  Wessaguscus  and  Mount  WoUas- 
ton  were  referred  to  a  committee  for  adjustment,  and 
in  the  July  following,  a  similar  arrangement  was  made 
to  fix  the  bounds  between  it  and  its  next  neighbor  on 
the  east,  Bare-Cove,  afterwards  Hingham.  In  Octo- 
ber, Richard  Long  was  fined  for  making  clapboards 
from  good  trees  and  selling  them  out  of  town,  when 
he  had  been  directed  to  make  them  into  shingles  for 
Castle  Island;  the  proceeds  of  the  fine  to  go  towards 
a  bridge  in  Wessaguscus.  The  Hull  company  could 
hardly  have  been  so  far  advanced  in  business  by  this 
time,  as  this  state  of  things  would  indicate;  besides. 
Long  was  not  a  member  of  that  company  but  must 
have  been  a  prior  settler.  In  March  of  the  next  year, 
Thomas  Applegate,  also  a  prior  settler,  was  removed 
from  his  position  as  ferry  keeper,  and  Henry  Kingman, 
one  of  the  new-comers,  appointed  to  succeed  him. 

The  assessment  and  payment  of  taxes  is  usually 
deemed  conclusive  evidence  in  matters  with  which 
they  come  in  connection.  If  there  were  boundaries  to 
be  adjusted,  there  must  have  been  residents  on  both 
sides  of  the  line  who  were  in  contention  about  them. 
A  ferry   and  a  bridge,  as    means    of  communication, 


92  WEYMOUTH   IN   ITS 

would  hardly  be  necessary  where  there  was  no  popnla- 
tion. 

'  The  earliest  of  the  town  records  contains  a  list  of 
land  owners  with  a  description  of  their  property.  The 
record  is  not  dated,  but  the  time  can  be  fixed  with  cer- 
tainty, within  about  a  year  and  a  half.  The  names  of 
Elizabeth  and  Mary  Fry,  daughters  of  William  Fry, 
deceased,  are  upon  this  list,  and  as  his  burial  is  re- 
corded as  having  taken  place  October  26,  1642,  the  list 
must  have  been  prepared  subsequent  to  that  time.  At 
the  close  of  these  property  descriptions  is  the  record  of 
the  transfer  of  some  of  this  same  property,  and  it  is  de- 
scribed in  the  lists  as  belonging  to  the  grantors.  Two 
of  these  transfei'S  bear  date  21  and  26  May,  16M,  thus 
showing  the  latest  limit  at  which  it  could  have  been 
compiled.  The  true  date  is  probably  1643,  and  there 
is  reason  for  believing,  from  internal  evidence,  that 
Rev.  Samuel  ]N"ewman  was  the  compiler,  he  being  at 
that  time  a  resident  of  the  town,  his  removal  to  Reho- 
both  taking  place  in  1644. 

In  this  list,  which  is  very  incomplete  as  will  be  easily 
seen,  there  are  the  names  of  71  persons  with  a  general 
description  of  the  property  then  owned  by  them.  In 
these  descriptions  the  names  of  17  others  are  men- 
tioned, from  whom  some  of  this  property  was  pur- 
chased, or  to  whom  the  original  grants  were  made. 
There  are  also  mentioned  as  owners  of  property  bound- 
ing the  diflPerent  lots  described,  the  names  of  52,  who 
do  not  appear  in  the  other  two  classes,  yet  who  must 
have  been  property  owners  or  they  could  not  have  been 
abuttors,  making  in  all  123,  at  least,  real  estate  owners 
at  the  time  the  list  was  made  up.  Why  this  large 
number  escaped  record  we  have  no  means  of  knowing, 
but  since  such  is  the  fact  we  may  reasonably  infer  that 
many  others  may  have  been  omitted  altogether,  and 
that  the  full  number  was  originally  much  greater;  in 


FIRST   TWENTY   YEARS.  93 

fact  we  have  evidence  that  this  was  so,  from  incidental 
mention  in  the  later  records.  Taking,  however,  the 
lists  as  they  come  to  us,  we  have  the  names  of  123, 
without  doubt  most  of  them  heads  of  families.  These, 
at  an  average  of  five  to  the  family,  a  moderate  estimate 
for  those  days,  would  furnish  a  population  of  more  than 
600. 

Of  these  123,  only  17  are  found  in  the  list  of  the 
Hull  company,  20  March,  1635 ;  the  remaining  106 
must  have  come  in  at  some  other  date.  Besides  these 
above  mentioned,  there  are  found  upon  the  birth  record 
of  Weymouth,  previous  to  1644,  the  names  of  seven, 
belonging  to  families  not  before  enumerated,  and  this 
record  is  notoriously  incomplete.  A  careful  examina- 
tion of  these  130  families  will  throw  further  light  upon 
the  matter.  Some  of  them  came  into  the  settlement 
subsequent  to  1635,  but  only  a  few.  Many  are  known 
to  have  been  earlier  residents.  Some  came  with  the 
Gorges  company  in  1623,  and  had  resided  here  since 
that  time,  and  many  others  were  among  the  arrivals 
continually  coming  in  during  the  eleven  intervening 
years  before  the  arrival  of  Mr.  Hull  and  his  company. 

Bursley,  Jeffries,  and  probably  Ludden,  with  sev- 
eral others,  Avere  members  of  the  Gorges  company. 
Henry  Adams,  John  Allen,  Robert  Abell,  Stephen 
French,  John  Glover,  Walter  Harris,  Edmond  Hart, 
James  Parker,  Thomas  Richards,  Thomas  Rawlins, 
Clement  Briggs,  Richard  Sylvester  and  Clement  Wea- 
ver, came  in  1630,  or  soon  after;  William  Torrey,  as 
late  as  1640,  while  the  large  majority  were  here  at  the 
date  of  the  making  up  of  the  record,  but  furthei'  than 
this  nothing  is  known  with  certainty.  From  the  evi- 
dence we  have,  however,  we  may  fairly  presume  that 
many  of  them  were  settlers  previous  to  the  arrival  of 
Gov.  Wintbroji,  and  that  some  of  them  were  of  that 
company  from  Weymouth,  England,  in  1624,  of  whom 


94  WEYMOUTH   IN   ITS 

Prince  makes  mention,  and  of  whom  something  more 
will  be  said  hereafter.  Of  the  settlers  who  were  here 
in  1628  and  1630,  we  know  but  little  beyond  the  fact 
that  they  were  here  at  that  date,  and  that  Thomas 
Morton,  of  Mount  Wollaston,  of  unpleasant  memory, 
was  on  intimate  terms  with  some  of  them,  and  was 
arrested  by  the  Plymouth  authorities,  while  on  a  visit 
here  in  1628. 

So,  then,  our  facts  relative  to  the  early  settlement 
are  briefly  these.  A  permanent  settlement  in  the  fall 
of  1623,  by  Capt.  Robert  Gorges  and  his  followers, 
continual  additions  during  the  next  four  years,  the 
record  of  the  arrest  of  Morton  in  1628,  for  which  the 
settlement  was  taxed  £2,  to  £2:  10s.  for  Plymouth, 
showing  the  comparative  size  of  the  two  plantations, 
casual  mention  for  the  following  three  years,  the  visit 
of  Gov.  Winthrop  on  his  way  to  and  from  Plymouth, 
in  1632,  record  of  births  in  1633,  and  the  colonial  tax 
lists  from  1630  onwards  until  the  erection  of  the  settle- 
ment into  a  plantation,  with  the  right  of  a  deputy  to 
the  General  Court. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  the  original  settlers  of 
Wessaguscus,  or  Weymouth,  were  what  would  now 
be  termed  "  squatters,"  and  their  titles  simply  those  of 
possession,  the  real  owners  being  the  Indians,  whose 
rights  were  general  and  not  individual.  The  English 
titles  were  vested  in  governmental  grants  to  the  large 
companies  like  the  Plymouth,  the  Gorges  and  the  Mas- 
sachusetts Bay.  These  early  settlers  came  into  the 
territory  of  Wessaguscus  before  it  fairly  was  in  the 
possession  of  either  company ;  consequently  they  could 
only  acquire  such  title  as  the  native  holders  could  give 
them,  to  be  confirmed  by  later  authority,  Avhatever  that 
might  be.  "Weymouth  extinguished  the  Indian  title  to 
its  territory  by  purchase;  the  deed  l)earing  date  26 
Aj)ril,  1612,  was  executed  by  the  resident  chiefs,  who 


FIKST   TWENTY   YEARS.  95 

sign  themselves  Wampetnc,  alias  Jonas  Webacowett, 
]^ateaunt  and  JSTahawton,  and  is  recorded  among  the 
Snffolk  Deeds.  J^ateaunt's  beach  and  probable  camp- 
ing gronnd  was  at  the  foot  of  Great  Hill,  in  ^orth 
Weymonth.  The  town  was  therefore  now  in  a  posi- 
tion to  confirm  the  planters  in  their  possessions,  and 
the  existence  of  the  list  of  possessions  made  soon  after, 
seems  to  indicate  that  this  was  done. 

There  are  reasons  why  the  early  contemporaneous 
records  and  writers  so  seldom  mention  this  town  and 
its  aifairs,  in  the  fact  of  its  different  origin,  the  marked 
jealousy,  not  to  say  unkind  feelings  with  which  the 
Plymouth  and  Massachusetts  Bay  colonies  regarded  it. 
It  had  a  more  commercial  element  in  its  constitution. 
It  was,  also,  in  its  incipience,  episcopal  in  its  ecclesiasti- 
cal relations,  which,  although  gradually  relaxing,  car- 
ried enough  of  the  flavor  of  the  "  establishment "  with 
it  to  make  it  anything  but  palatable  to  the  taste  of  their 
puritan  and  independent  neighbors.  The  relations  then 
existing  between  them  and  their  neighbors  about  the 
Bay  we  cannot  determine  with  certainty  now,  but  we 
may  judge  something  of  what  they  were  by  the  casual 
mention,  and  the  incidental  exhibitions  of  feeling,  crop- 
ping out  but  too  frequently. 

If  it  were  the  usual  custom  in  the  settlement  of  this 
country  to  form  churches  immediately  after  taking  per- 
manent possession,  and  of  this  there  can  be  little  doubt, 
then  Wessaguscus  should  have  had  a  church  several 
years  at  least  before  the  arrival  of  Rev.  Joseph  Hull; 
and  perhaps  by  a  careful  study  of  the  facts  we  have, 
and  the  results  growing  out  of  them,  we  may  make  our 
probabilities  approach  more  nearly  to  positive  evidence 
than  we  have  been  able  heretofore  to  do,  although  we 
may  not  quite  reach  the  point  we  wish  to  attain. 

With  the  Gorges  company  in  the  autumn  of  1623, 
came  Rev.  William  Morrell,  their  minister,  a  clergyman 


96  WEYMOUTH   IN   ITS 

of  the  Established  Church.  He  appears  to  have  been  a 
quiet,  scholarly  gentlemen,  of  cultivated  tastes  and  re- 
fined habits,  much  better  fitted  for  the  duties  and  en- 
joyments of  an  English  rectory,  than  to  found  and 
build  up  a  church  in  the  rough  settlements  of  a  new 
country.  He  could  better  enjoy  the  congenial  society 
of  his  equals,  at  home,  than  guide  the  rude,  independent 
minds  of  those  who  constituted  his  companions  in  this, 
to  him,  wholly  unknown  enterprise.  The  whole  plan  of 
the  undertaking  was  conceived  and  started  in  a  spirit 
particularly  unconscious  of  the  real  position  of  affairs 
where  it  was  to  be  executed.  It  was  a  paper  campaign, 
projected  by  an  impracticable  general,  and  entrusted  to 
incompetent  officers.  As  such  the  result  was  inevitable 
failure.  It  was  started  with  organization  and  machin- 
ery enough  to  carry  on  a  colony  of  the  greatest  magni- 
tude after  years  of  successful  growth;  and  in  order  to 
give  it  dignity  and  importance,  and  to  secure  the  favor 
of  the  home  government,  its  ecclesiastical  character  and 
position  were  well  cared  for  in  the  plan.  Mr.  Morrell 
was  its  minister,  sufficient  for  the  needs  of  its  first  com- 
pany. He  was  the  pioneer  to  whom  was  intrusted  all 
of  the  preliminary  work  that  v/as  to  speedily  result  in  a 
flourishing  bishopric,  and  as  such  he  was  clothed  with 
ample  powers,  with  full  control  of  all  the  churches 
present  and  in  immediate  prospect  upon  these  shores. 
The  reality  soon  satisfied  him  that  the  plan  was  a  fail- 
ure, or  that  he  was  not  the  man  to  execute  it.  A  rig- 
orous climate,  an  inhospitable  coast,  and  the  compan- 
ionship of  uncongenial  spirits  were  more  than  he  had 
bargained  for  and  more  than  he  could  bear.  With  the 
discouragements  of  many  of  his  associates  he  sympath- 
ized. Thus  we  find  that  he  remained  with  his  charge 
about  a  year  and  a  half  and  then  returned  to  England, 
sailing  from  Plymouth ;  having  had  the  rare  good 
sense  and  discretion  to  keep  his  ecclesiastical  jiowers 


FIRST  TWENTY   YEARS.  9T 

and  authority  to  himself,  for  he  did  not  attempt  in  the 
least  degree  to  exercise  these,  although  they  were  so 
large,  showing  them  only  when  about  to  leave.  With 
this  marvellous  prospect  before  him  when  he  undertook 
the  position,  and  the  facilities  given  him  to  carry  out 
almost  any  ideas  he  may  have  entertained  respecting 
his  ecclesiastical  work,  however  extravagant  they  may 
have  been,  is  it  presumptuous  to  suppose  that  he  did 
not  neglect  the  very  first  step  necessary  to  carry  out 
the  plan  of  the  enterprise,  which  would  be  the  forma- 
tion of  a  local  church?  We  have  no  positive  evidence 
that  he  did  this,  but  the  probabilities  would  certainly 
seem  to  favor  such  a  proceeding.  Without  such  an 
organization  he  could  hope  to  accomplish  but  little; 
with  it  he  would  have  made  a  beginning  and  laid  the 
foundations,  at  least,  upon  which  to  erect  the  imposing 
structure,  that  had  filled  the  minds  of  the  original  pro- 
jectors in  England. 

For  the  chronicles  of  the  church  and  minister  during 
the  next  ten  years  we  have  to  rely  mainly  upon  a  single 
statement,  we  might  almost  say  tradition,  and  that 
somewhat  vague  and  unsatisfactory.  The  passage  in 
"Prince's  Chronicles"  relating  to  this  settlement  seems 
not  to  be  credited  by  Mr.  Adams,  yet  it  is  of  such  a 
nature  that  we  can  hardly  pass  it  by  as  entirely  with- 
out foundation.  It  reads  as  follows :  "  This  year  comes 
some  addition  to  the  few  inhabitants  of  Wessagusset, 
from  Weymouth,  England,  who  are  another  sort  of 
people  than  the  former."  Then  follows  in  brackets 
["  and  on  whose  account  I  conclude  the  town  is  since 
called  Weymouth  "] .  To  this  is  appended  the  follow- 
ing note:  —  "They  have  the  Rev.  Mr.  Barnard,  their 
first  non-conformist  minister,  who  dies  among  them. 
But  whether  he  comes  before  or  after  1630,  or  when 
he  dies  is  yet  unknown,  nor  do  I  anywhere  find  the 
least  hint  of  him,  but  in  the  manuscript  letter  taken 


98  '  WEYMOUTH   IN   ITS 

from  some  of  the  oldest  ])eople  of  AVeymoiith."  The 
authority  upon  which  this  whole  passage  depends  is 
the  manuscript  letter.  The  statement  is  a  very  import- 
ant one,  and  would  seem  to  be  entitled  to  more  weight 
than  Mr.  Adams  is  inclined  to  allow  it.  Kev.  Thomas 
Prince  was  born  15  May,  1687,  and  was  old  enough 
before  their  decease,  to  know  many  of  those  who  were 
the  children  of  the  very  earliest  settlers  of  the  town. 
From  them  he  undoubtedly  obtained  the  information 
contained  in  the  manuscript  letter.  And  who  were 
these  people  and  how  much  viilue  should  attach  to 
their  testimony?  As  an  answer  let  us  look  at  the 
record  of  a  single  year,  that  of  1718,  when  Mr.  Prince 
was  31  years  of  age.  Among  the  deaths  of  that  year 
we  find  the  following :  —  Samuel,  son  of  Elder  Edward 
Bates,  Capt.  Stephen  French,  son  of  Stephen  French, 
(Edward  Bates  and  Stephen  French  were  members 
of  the  Dorchester  council,  Feb.,  1639,  in  the  Lenthal 
matter,  from  the  Weymouth  church) ;  Ichabod,  son  of 
Capt.  John  Holbrook ;  James,  son  of  Dea.  Jonas  Hum- 
phrey; James,  son  of  Robert  Lovell;  Lieut.  Jacob,  son 
of  Capt.  James  ^N^ash;  John,  son  of  Robert  Randall; 
Dea.  John,  son  of  Joseph  Shaw;  William  and  Jona- 
than, sons  of  Capt.  William  Torrey,  and  John,  son  of 
John  Vinson.  These  were  all  old  men,  and  their 
fathers  were  among  the  first  settlers  of  the  town,  and 
all,  fathers  and  sons,  were  among  its  most  intelligent 
and  important  citizens.  This  is  the  record  for  a  single 
year.  While  Mr.  Prince  was  in  the  prime  of  life  there 
were  scores  of  such,  from  whom  his  information  would 
come  only  second  hand.  The  death  of  Rev.  Samuel 
Torrey,  one  of  the  ablest  ministers  of  his  day,  the  pas- 
tor of  the  church  in  Weymouth  for  many  years,  oc- 
curred in  1707,  when  Mr.  Prince  was  20  years  old, 
whom  he  well  knew,  and  whose  authority  would  be 
unquestioned.     Here  were  sources  of  information  from 


FIRST   TWENTY   YEARS,  99 

which  he  probably  drew  his  account.  He  has  always 
had  the  reputation  of  being  a  very  careful  historian, 
and  any  statement  of  his  should  not  be  hastily  set  aside. 
Mr.  Prince  himself  does  not  appear  to  doubt  its  cor- 
rectness, but  is  surprised  to  find  no  mention  made  of 
the  company  and  the  minister,  Mr.  Barnard,  in  contem- 
porary writers.  As  before  intimated,  satisfactory  rea- 
son could  no  doubt  be  found  for  such  omissions  were 
the  relations  between  the  few  scattered  settlements  of 
the  time  known  to  us.  If  we  may  not  give  some  credit 
to  this  tradition  upon  such  an  authority,  it  will  be 
hardly  worth  our  while  to  pursue  our  inquiries  further 
in  this  direction,  for  it  is  by  just  such  incidental  testi- 
mony, and  that  alone,  that  we  are  to  establish  much  of 
our  proof.  And  this  is  often  the  most  satisfactory 
evidence,  for  the  very  reason  that  it  is  incidental  and 
indirect,  and  therefore  less  liable  to  be  swayed  by 
prejudice  or  predisposition.  Again,  the  probabilities 
are  strongly  in  favor  of  the  existence  of  this  Mr.  Bar- 
nard as  the  minister;  for  with  such  antecedents  and 
surroundings  as  these  early  planters  had,  it  would  be 
natural  and  proper  for  them  to  have  a  minister,  and  in 
the  absence  of  any  evidence  to  the  contrary,  may  we 
not  credit  the  statement  of  Mr.  Prince,  that  these  set- 
tlers at  Wessagusset  had  for  their  minister,  Mr.  Bar- 
nard, who  lived  and  died  among  them;  and  that  the 
statement  did  not  come  merely  from  a  confusion  of 
names,  consequent  upon  the  appearance  of  Massachiel 
Barnard,  a  member  of  the  Hull  company,  who  made  his 
home  in  the  town  for  several  years?  For  similar 
reasons  may  we  not  well  believe  that  this  people  and 
minister  were  not  without  a  church  for  a  series  of 
years  ? 

We  have  no  further  record  of  church  or  minister 
until  1635,  when  permission  was  given,  8  July,  by  the 
General  Court,  for  Kev.  Joseph  Hull  and  21  families 


100  WEYMOUTH   IN   ITS 

to  sit  down  at  Wessaguscus.  On  the  2d  of  September, 
following,  the  name  of  the  settlement  was  changed 
to  Weymouth,  and  it  was  made  a  plantation,  with  a 
privilege  of  a  deputy  to  the  General  Court.  Mr.  Hull 
was  also  made  a  freeman  at  the  same  time.  His  first 
grant  of  land  is  recorded  as  in  Weymouth,  12  June, 
1636.  The  same  year  he  also  received  a  grant  of  land 
in  Hingham.  In  1637,  he  was  reported  as  being  still 
in  Weymouth,  while  the  same  year,  probably  later  and 
transiently,  he  is  named  among  the  list  of  first  settlers 
in  Salem.  He  was  also  heard  from  about  the  same 
time,  preaching  at  Bass  River,  Beverly.  In  Septem- 
ber, 1638,  he  was  chosen  deputy  to  the  General  Court 
from  Hingham,  and  was  also  appointed  a  local  magis- 
trate for  the  same  town.  His  son,  Benjamin,  was  bap- 
tized there,  24  March,  1639;  and  again  he  was  elected 
its  deputy  to  the  General  Court.  5  May  of  that  year, 
he  preached  his  farewell  sermon  in  Weymouth,  and 
later,  in  the  same  month,  is  heard  from  at  Barnstable, 
in  Plymouth  colony,  making  a  settlement. 

His  sojourn  at  Barnstable  was  a  short  and  stormy 
one,  for  he  had  hardly  become  settled  there  with  his 
little  company  when  the  territory  was  entered  upon  by 
Kev.  Mr.  Lothrop  and  his  flock  from  Scituate.  There 
his  daughter  Joanna  was  married  in  ]^ovember,  1639, 
to  Capt.  John  Bursley,  who  was  unquestionably  the 
Bursley  of  the  Gorges  company,  at  Weymouth,  in 
1623,  whom  we  find  back  again  in  that  town  as  a  land 
owner  in  1643.  Mr.  Hull  was  made  a  freeman  of 
Plymouth  colony,  in  December,  1639.  There  seems 
to  have  been  trouble  in  the  Barnstable  church,  and  Mr. 
Hull  preached  at  Yarmouth  so  acceptably,  that,  early 
in  1641  he  received  a  call  from  the  church  there,  which 
he  promptly  accepted,  and  for  which  both  he  and  his 
wife  were  excommunicated  by  the  Barnstable  church. 
On  this  account  perhaps,  and  possibly  from  the  infiu- 


FIRST   TWENTY   YEARS.  101 

ence  of  the  Plymouth  authorities,  who  appear  to  have 
become  hostile  to  him,  his  stay  at  Yarmouth  was  of 
short  duration,  for  we  find  him  as  preacher  at  the  Isle 
of  Shoals,  in  March,  1642.  He  seems  not  yet  to  have 
Avholly  abandoned  the  Plymouth  colony,  for,  11  March, 
1642,  his  wife  Agnes  renews  her  covenant  with  the 
Barnstable  church,  and  7  March,  1643,  a  warrant  for 
his  arrest  is  issued  by  the  court,  "  should  he  continue 
his  ministrations  as  minister  or  magistrate  in  that 
colony."  His  troubles  there  appear  to  have  been  ad- 
justed, for  he  was  received  back  into  the  Barnstable 
church,  10  August,  1643.  He  now  bids  a  final  fare- 
well to  that  colony,  and  we  next  hear  of  him  as  preach- 
ing at  York,  Maine,  where,  or  in  that  vicinity,  he 
remained  for  8  or  10  years,  subject  however  to  the 
not  very  friendly  attentions  of  his  Massachusetts  Bay 
colony  acquaintances.  He  afterwards  returned  to 
England,  and  was,  in  1659,  rector  of  St.  Buryan's, 
Cornwall,  where  he  remained  about  three  years,  when 
his  name  appears  among  the  ejected  ministers  under 
the  "  St.  Bartholomew  Act."  He  again  took  refuge  in 
America,  where  he  was  found,  1665,  the  year  of  his 
death,  once  more  at  the  Isle  of  Shoals,  having  been 
driven  from  Oyster  River  by  the  Quakers. 

Mr.  Hull  was  born  in  Somersetshire,  England,  about 
the  year  1590;  was  educated  at  Oxford  University,  St. 
Mary's  Hall,  where  he  graduated  in  1614;  became  rec- 
tor of  Northleigh,  Devon,  in  1621,  which  position  he 
resigned  in  1632,  when  he  commenced  gathering  from 
his  native  county  and  those  surrounding  it,  the  com- 
pany with  which  he  sailed  from  Weymouth,  Dorset,  20 
March,  1635. 

"  Mr.  Hull,"  says  Savage,  "  came  over  in  the  Episco- 
pal interest,"  and  his  sympathies  appear  to  have  leaned 
in  that  direction,  although  while  in  America  he  was 
professedly  a  non-conformist,  or  Independent;  hence, 


102  WEYMOUTH   IN   ITS 

l^robably,  the  jealousy  and  petty  persecution  which 
followed  him  with  more  or  less  virulence,  during  the 
greater  part  of  his  residence  on  these  shores.  He  was 
a  man  of  worth  and  learning  by  the  admission  of  Hub- 
bard. He  must  have  been  a  popular  man  from  his  suc- 
cess in  securing  followers  to  make  up  his  company  of 
emigrants,  and  his  selection  by  the  voice  of  his  con- 
stituents at  three  different  elections  as  deputy  to  the 
General  Court,  twice  at  Hingham,  and  once  at  Barn- 
stable. He  must  have  been  an  acceptable  preacher 
from  the  eagerness  with  which  his  services  were 
sought.  Dr.  Mather  places  him  among  our  "  first  good 
men ; "  and  Pike,  his  successor  at  Dover,  remembers 
him  as  a  reverend  minister,  while  Gov.  Winthrop  says 
he  was  "  a  very  contentious  man."  Possibly  the  worthy 
Governor  may  not  have  been  quite  free  from  prejudice 
against  the  free-spoken,  Independent  minister,  with 
Episcopal  antecedents  and  tendencies,  yet  the  frequent 
removals,  numerous  troubles,  vexations  and  lawsuits, 
certainly  give  room  for  the  Governor's  opinion.  No 
fault  seems  to  have  been  found  with  his  moral  or  re- 
ligious character,  but  he  was  certainly  unfortunate 
while  in  this  country  by  having  circumstances  so  often 
against  him,  or  in  having  so  many  bad  neighbors.  It 
is  somewhat  doubtful  whether  he  was  ever  settled  over 
the  church  in  Weymouth. 

Rev.  Thomas  Jenner  was  in  Weymouth  in  the  early 
part  of  1636,  and  took  the  freeman's  oath  in  December 
of  that  year.  According  to  Mr.  Savage  he  was  in  Pox- 
bury  a  year  or  tAvo  previous  to  that.  Soon,  in  1637,  he 
received  a  call  from  the  Weymouth  people.  The  same 
year,  according  to  Winthrop  and  Hubbard,  "  divers  of 
the  ministers  and  elders  went  to  Weymouth,  to  recon- 
cile the  differences  between  the  people  and  Mr.  Jennei-, 
whom  they  had  called  for  their  pastor,  and  had  good 
success."     We  lind,  also,  from  the  General  Court  rec- 


FIRST   TWENTY   YEARS.  103 

ords,  that  this  course  was  ordered  by  the  court.  He 
remained  there  foi*  several  years,  and  in  1640  repre- 
sented the  town  in  the  General  Court.  He  i-etii-ed 
from  the  ministry  there  for  some  reason  unexplained 
by  the  records,  although  we  may  get  a  hint  at  what  it 
was,  and  went  to  Saco,  Maine.  N^ot  much  is  known  of 
him,  further  than  this:  that  he  came  to  Weymouth  as 
early  at  least  as  the  year  following  the  arrival  of  Mr. 
Hull,  and  that  he  came  in  the  interest  of  the  ministers 
and  authorities  of  the  Massachusetts  Bay  colony,  and 
was  sustained  by  them  through  the  troubles  that 
ensued. 

And  now  a  third  minister  appears  upon  the  scene. 
Rev.  Robert  Lenthal,  who  was  in  Weymouth  as  early 
as  1637,  where  "  he  disseminated  his  new  doctrines, 
made  proselytes  and  collected  a  strong  party  to  oppose 
the  new  organization  of  the  church,  which  took  place 
30  Jan'y,  1638,"  according  to  notes  appended  to  a  ser- 
mon preached  by  Rev.  Josiah  Bent  at  the  dedication  of 
the  new  meeting-house  in  North  Weymouth,  28  ISTov- 
ember,  1832.  These  notes  were  prepared  by  Hon. 
Christopher  Webb,  who  was  deeply  interested  in  Wey- 
mouth history  and  had  been  long  engaged  in  collecting 
materials  for  historical  purposes.  Mr.  Savage  also 
states  that  Mr.  Lenthal  was  in  Weymouth  in  1637, 
"  but  not  pleasing  the  Governor  was  forbid  to  be  or- 
dained." Matters  in  the  church,  instead  of  growing 
better  after  the  council  of  1637,  which  met  with  such 
"  good  success  in  reconciling  the  differences  between 
Mr.  Jenner  and  his  people  in  Weymouth,"  became  so 
much  worse  that  it  was  deemed  necessary  to  call  a 
second  council  or  conference,  which  was  held  at  the 
house  of  Capt.  Israel  Stoughton,  in  Dorchester,  a  mag- 
istrate of  the  colony,  10  February,  1639.  Notes  of 
the  proceedings  were  taken  by  Capt.  Robert  Keayne 
(brother-in-law   of  Rev.  John  Wilson),  which   have 


104  WEYMOUTH   IN   TTR 

been  preserved  among  the  Stiles  manuscripts  in  Yale 
College  Library.  From  these  notes  much  vahiable  in- 
formation has  come  to  light.  The  council  must  have 
been  considered  a  very  impoi-tant  one,  since  we  find 
among  its  members,  Rev.  John  Wilson,  pastor,  and 
Rev.  John  Cotton,  teacher,  of  the  church  in  Boston; 
Rev.  Zechariah  Symmes,  teacher,  of  the  church  in 
Charlestown;  Rev.  John  Weld,  pastor,  and  Rev.  John 
Eliot,  teacher,  of  the  church  in  Roxbury ;  Rev.  Samuel 
Newman,  (who  went  to  Weymouth  the  same  year) ; 
Rev.  Thomas  Jenner,  of  Weymouth  ;  Mr.  Edward 
Bates  and  Mr.  Stephen  French,  of  Weymouth,  the 
former  of  whom,  and  not  the  latter  as  Mr.  Trumbull 
has  it,  was  then,  or  soon  became,  a  ruling  elder  of  the 
church  in  that  town;  also  a  private  man,  perhaps  Capt. 
Keayne  himself. 

•  In  those  days  one  of  the  surest  and  most  expeditious 
ways  of  disposing  of  a  troublesome  competitor,  and  one 
which  has  not  yet  been  entirely  abandoned,  was  to 
accuse  him  of  heresy,  and  it  was  a  very  poor  use  of 
favorable  circumstances  that  failed  to  convict,  and  thus 
dispose  of  the  difficulty.  The  points  which  Mr.  Len- 
thal  was  called  to  answer,  and  upon  which  he  was  sup- 
posed to  differ,  were,  the  constituents  of  the  real 
church,  and  justification  by  faith.  The  churches  of 
Kew  England  at  that  time  very  tenaciously  held  to 
the  necessity  of  a  covenant  for  giving  "  essential  be- 
ing "  to  the  church,  while  Mr.  Lenthal  believed  that 
baptism  and  not  the  covenant  constituted  this  "  essen- 
tial being,"  as  it  was  termed.  He  also  objected  to 
reordination  after  a  new  election.  The  real  point  of 
difference  seems  to  have  been  the  relative  merits  of  the 
church  and  parish  systems,  perhaps,  as  at  present  illus- 
trated in  the  settlement  of  ministers  by  ordination  or 
installation,  or  in  their  emploj^ment  as  "  stated  sup- 
ply ; "    settling   or   only   hiring ;    a   matter    of  purely 


FTEST   TWENTY   YEARS.  105 

church  polity.  The  churches  believed  strongly  in  the 
antecedence  of  election  to  ordination  of  chnrch  officers. 
The  second  point  was  justification  by  faith,  as  held  by 
these  churches  against  the  construction  put  upon  it  by 
Mrs.  Hutchinson  and  her  adherents;  a  difference  rather 
metaphysical  than  doctrinal,  as  it  would  appear  to  us. 
Both  of  these  questions  were  satisfactorily  settled,  as 
far  as  the  session  of  the  council  was  concerned;  Mr. 
Lenthal  being  sincere  enough,  or  politic  enough,  not 
to  differ  too  strongly  from  his  judges. 

The  facts  brought  out  were,  that  Mr.  Lenthal  had 
previously  been  a  minister  in  good  repute  in  England; 
that  in  the  preceding  years  several  of  his  people  had 
come  to  America  and  were  settled  at  Weymouth,  and 
he  expected  more  to  follow.  Mr.  Jenner  was  now  at 
Weymouth;  Mr.  Hull  had  not  yet  preached  his  farewell 
sermon,  and  there  was  not  absolute  harmony  among 
the  people.  Upon  Mr.  Lenthal's  appearance  in  ISTew 
England,  his  former  people  who  had  settled  in  Wey- 
mouth, with  probably  some  others,  enough  to  form 
quite  a  strong  party,  urged  him  to  come  to  that  place 
and  be  their  minister,  to  which  he  willingly  consented. 

In  attempting,  however,  to  carry  out  this  arrange- 
ment, Mr.  Jenner  being  in  possession,  and  having  a 
strong  official  support,  trouble  ensued,  so  great  that 
the  salary  of  Mr.  Jenner  failed  to  be  paid;  hence  the 
conference,  although  the  plea  was  unsoundness  in  doc- 
trine, on  the  part  of  Mr.  Lenthal.  Mr.  Jenner  and  Mr. 
iS^ewraan,  as  previously  stated,  were  both  members  of 
this  council,  the  former  to  be  a  judge  in  his  own  case, 
and  the  latter  a  party  in  interest,  as  we  find  him,  almost 
immediately,  upon  the  ground,  and  within  a  short  time 
in  full  possession  of  the  field;  Mr. -Hull  preaching  his 
farewell  sermon  the  same  year;  Mr.  Jenner  a  resident 
of  Saco,  within  two  years ;  while  Mr.  Lenthal  goes  to 
that  refuge  for  the  persecuted,  Rhode  Island,  where  he 


106  WEYMOUTH   IN   ITS 

was  admitted  as  freeman,  6  August,  1640,  and  era- 
ployed  b}^  the  town  of  Newport  in  teaching  a  pu]:>he 
school.  It  is  said  that  he  returned  to  England  in  1641 
or  1642.  The  trouble  seems  to  have  been  that  Wey- 
mouth was  considered  a  public  manor  upon  which  any 
minister  had  a  right  to  poach,  and  the  difficulties  that 
ensued  in  consequence,  although  satisfactorily  settled, 
would  not  stay  settled,  but  were  continually  breaking 
out  afresh. 

In  this  connection,  J.  Hammond  Trumbull,  in  his 
notes  upon  the  Stiles  paper,  published  in  the  Con- 
gregational Quarterly  for  April,  1877,  from  which  the 
report  of  the  council  of  1639  was  taken,  quotes  from 
Winthrop  as  follows :  "  It  is  observable  this  church 
and  that  of  Lynn  could  not  hold  together,  nor  could 
have  any  elders  join  or  hold  Avith  them.  The  reason 
appeared  to  be  because  they  did  not  begin  according 
to  the  rule  of  the  gospel."  Was  this  a  church  formed 
by  Mr.  Hull,  or  was  it  an  attempt  to  form  a  second? 
The  vigorous  repressive  measures  of  the  General  Court 
seem  to  have  prepared  the  way  for  a  permanent  set- 
tlement of  the  difficulties,  the  prominent  actors  in 
the  Lenthal  faction  being  quite  summarily  dealt  with. 
John  Smith  was  fined  £20  and  committed  during  the 
pleasure  of  the  court  j  Kichard  Silvester  was  fined  £2 
and  disfranchised,  for  "  disturbing  the  peace  by  com- 
bining with  others  to  hinder  the  orderly  gathering  of  a 
church  in  Weymouth,  and  to  set  up  another  there, — 
and  for  undue  procuring  the  hands  of  many  to  a  blank 
for  that  purpose."  Mr.  Ambrose  Martin,  "  for  calling 
the  church  covenant  a  stinking  carrion  and  a  human 
invention,  etc.,  was  fined  £10  and  ordered  to  go  to  Mr. 
Mather  to  be  instructed  by  him."  Mr.  Thomas  Make- 
peace, "because  of  his  novile  disposition  was  informed 
that  we  are  weary  of  him,  unless  he  reform ; "  and 
James  Britton,  "  for  his  not  appearing  was  committed, 


FIRST   TWENTY   YEAKS.  107 

and  for  his  gross  lying,  dissimulation  and  contempt  of 
ministers,  churches  and  covenant  was  openly  whipt." 
Thus  promptly  was  heresy  and  insubordination  crushed 
by  our  fathers,  and  freedom  of  speech,  action  and  con- 
science protected,  —  in  their  way. 

The  way  having  been  thus  prepared,  Rev.  Samuel 
N^ewman  came  to  Weymouth  in  1639,  where  he  re- 
mained for  four  or  five  years,  but  the  seeds  of  former 
troubles  had  not  yet  ceased  to  sprout;  the  difficulty 
was  not  wholly  overcome ;  the  spirit  of  unrest  that  had 
for  some  years  so  possessed  the  people  would  not  so 
soon  be  quieted.  He  found  his  position  anything  but 
a  bed  of  roses,  and  he  was  glad  to  emigrate  to  escape 
the  labor  of  so  hard  a  field;  therefore,  in  16M,  he,  with 
some  40  families,  sought  refuge  in  Seekonk,  which,  in 
memory  of  the  occasion  and  its  cause,  he  called  Reho- 
both,  "  The  Lord  hath  made  room  for  us."  Not  be- 
cause Weymouth  had  become  too  narrow  in  territory 
for  them,  for  probably  not  a  quarter  of  its  acres  had 
been  taken  up,  but  for  the  same  reason  that  separated 
Abraham  and  Lot.  The  pressure  was  on  the  spirit  and 
not  upon  the  body;  and  so,  rather  than  continue  the 
quarrel,  they  sought  a  new  home  further  in  the  wilder- 
ness. Common  tradition,  which  most  of  the  historians 
have  followed,  says  that  he  took  with  him  a  majority 
of  his  congregation,  but  with  the  facts  relative  to  the 
population  that  we  have  already  before  us,  it  will  be 
easy  to  prove  that  this  could  not  have  been  correct,  for 
we  have  seen  that  at  the  date  of  the  first  meeting  held 
by  the  original  planters  of  Seekonk,  which  by  the  way 
was  held  in  Weymouth,  24  October,  1643,  the  latter 
town  had  at  least  130  families,  probably  a  good  many 
more,  while  of  these  only  23  names  are  found  in  the 
list  of  the  original  proprietors  of  Seekonk,  four  of 
whom  certainly  remained  in  Weymouth,  leaving  but  19 
out  of  which  to  manufacture  a  majority  of  130.     This 


108  WEYMOUTH   IN   ITS 

emigration  was  indeed  a  serious  loss,  but  its  general 
effect  was  hardly  perceptible,  and  the  business  of  the 
town  apparently  went  on  as  though  nothing  important 
had  happened. 

Rev.  Mr.  ]^ewman  was  born  in  Banbury,  England, 
in  1600;  graduated  at  Oxford,  in  1620;  came  to  Dor- 
chester, Mass.,  in  1636,  and  to  Weymouth,  in  1639; 
whence  he  removed  to  Rehoboth,  where  he  died  5  July, 
1663.  "  He  was  a  hard  student,  an  animated  preacher, 
and  an  excellent  man,  ardently  beloved  and  long  la- 
mented by  his  people.  He  compiled  by  the  light  of 
pine  knots,  a  concordance  of  the  Bible,  the  third  at 
that  time  in  the  English  language,  and  the  best.  While 
living  he  was  defrauded  of  the  pecuniary  profits  of  his 
work,  and  when  dead,  he  was  robbed  also  of  the  name, 
the  work  being  afterwards  known  as  '  Cruden's  Con- 
cordance.' " 

With  the  withdrawal  of  Mr.  ^NTewman,  and  the  settle- 
ment of  Mr.  Thomas  Thacher,  who  was  ordained  2  Jan- 
uary, 1644,  the  perplexing  trouble  of  the  Weymouth 
church  came  to  an  end,  and  an  era  of  extended  pros- 
perity dawned  upon  it.  From  this  time  forward  the 
history  of  the  church  can  be  traced  quite  fully  and  ac- 
curately, although  it  has  no  records  of  its  own  previous 
to  the  time  of  Rev.  William  Smith,  those  for  the  first 
hundred  years  of  its  existence  being  missing. 

So  much  for  our  brief  record  of  facts.  Some  of 
them,  however,  and  those  among  the  more  important, 
need  to  be  accounted  for  or  explained,  in  order  to  make 
the  narrative  consistent  and  satisfactory.  The  intense 
difficulties  of  the  eight  years  from  the  arrival  of  Mr. 
Hull  in  1635,  to  the  departure  of  Mr.  Newman  in  1644, 
must  have  had  an  origin  that  is  not  revealed  to  us  in 
the  records  at  our  command.  What  were  the  causes 
that  produced  them  and  contributed  to  keep  thein  alive 
during  this  period?     Why  is  it  that  contemporaneous 


FIRST   TWENTY   YEAES.  109 

writers  have  so  little  to  say  about  this  settlement  and 
its  events  during  its  first  twenty  years?  Perhaps  a 
closer  look  at  the  facts  we  have  may  throw  some  light 
upon  the  subject. 

Rev.  Mr.  Morrell,  it  is  admitted,  came  to  this  town 
in  the  Episcopal  interest.  He  was  a  clergyman  of  the 
Established  Church,  clothed  with  extraordinary  powci"S 
to  form,  govern  and  perpetuate  churches  of  that  com- 
munion. Whatever  influence  he  exerted  was  in  favor 
of  the  extension  and  strengthening  of  that  organization. 
His  people  were  in  sympathy  with  him  in  this  matter, 
and  if  he  founded  a  church  here  it  was  of  that  denom- 
ination; if  he  did  not,  he  left  influences  behind  him  that 
would  naturally  work  towards  the  accomplishment  of 
that  purpose,  and  these  influences  would  as  naturally 
continue  to  operate  while  these  settlers  formed  an  im- 
portant element  in  that  community;  they  would  of 
necessity  oppose  the  ecclesiastical  systems  of  the  Ply- 
mouth and  Bay  colonies,  then  or  soon  to  become  their 
near  neighbors.  While  the  settlement  was  one,  before 
the  arrival  of  Gov.  Winthrop  and  the  rapid  increase  of 
settlements  around  the  Bay,  there  was  nothing  to  call 
up  this  feeling  of  opposition,  for  the  few  emigrants 
who  came  from  time  to  time,  even  if  their  sympathies 
were  at  variance  with  the  previous  settlers,  had  enough 
to  do  to  look  after  their  own  aflfairs ;  besides,  the  col- 
ony was  not  strong  enough  to  quarrel.  The  arrival  of 
Gov.  Winthrop,  the  establishment  of  the  colonial  gov- 
ernment, and  the  large  tide  of  emigration  that  set  in 
immediately  after,  had  its  efi"ect  upon  the  little  planta- 
tion of  Wessaguscus.  The  favorable  situation,  and 
the  already  established  community,  drew  in  many  new 
settlers  from  other  points,  and  the  influence  of  the  gov- 
ernment, and  the  religious  system  it  supported,  soon 
made  itself  felt,  and  with  the  assistance  derived  from 
these  sources,  became  at  length  predominant.     Still  the 


110  WEYMOUTH   IN   ITS 

old  feeling  of  loyalty  to  the  Church  of  England  and  to 
the  Gorges  company,  was  powerful  enough  to  form  a 
strong  party. 

Such  was  the  position  of  affairs,  when,  in  the  summer 
of  1635,  the  arrival  of  Mr.  Hull  and  his  score  of  families 
introduced  a  new  element  of  discord  into  the  already 
divided  community.  The  new  comers,  not  in  full  sym- 
pathy with  either  faction,  deemed  themselves  strong 
enough  and  of  sufficient  importance  to  have  at  least  an 
equal  voice  in  the  councils  of  the  town,  and  as  there 
was  no  minister  at  their  coming,  and  as  they  brought 
one  ready-made  at  their  hands,  what  better  could  they 
do  than  accept  him  for  all?  This  at  once  aroused  the 
opposition  of  the  older  settlers,  and  measures  were  im- 
mediately taken  to  prevent  such  a  result.  The  friends 
of  the  government  seem  to  have  been  the  strongest 
and  most  energetic.  They  select  Mr.  Thomas  Jenner, 
a  recent  emigrant  to  Dorchester,  and  invite  him  to  take 
the  lield  in  opposition,  which  he  was  very  ready  to  do, 
for  we  find  him  here  in  the  year  following.  Success 
appears  to  have  followed  the  movement,  for  Mr.  Hull 
virtually  retires  from  the  contest,  as  the  records  show 
him  in  1636  and  1637  as  a  candidate  for  the  ministerial 
position  in  other  places,  and  soon,  with  a  sufficiently 
permanent  location  in  the  neighboring  town  of  Hing- 
ham,  to  become  its  deputy  to  the  General  Court.  Still 
he  does  not  appear  to  have  wholly  relinquished  his 
claim  upon  the  Weymouth  pulpit,  for  it  was  not  until 
1639  that  his  far eweir  sermon  was  preached. 

The  jealousy  of  the  original  settlers  of  any  authority 
below  the  crown,  outside  of  their  own  patent,  may  have 
prevented  as  close  an  intimacy  with  the  neighboring 
plantations  as  would  otherwise  have  existed;  and  this 
would  furnish  a  reason  why  it  is  so  seldom  mentioned 
by  them  in  connection  with  then"  own  affiurs.  However 
this  may  be,  the  authority  of  the  colonial  government 


FIRST   TWENTY   YEARS.  Ill 

was  gradually  extended  over  the  settlement,  and  the 
people  submitted  with  the  best  grace  they  could,  but 
not  without  an  occasional  exhibition  of  the  old  spirit 
by  way  of  protest.  The  town  was  reorganized,  its 
name  changed,  and  the  privilege  of  a  deputy  to  the 
General  Court  granted  to  it  in  the  summer  and  fall 
of  1635.  At  once  the  three  opposing  elements  show 
themselves,  and  the  little  town  chooses  three  deputies, 
instead  of  the  one  to  which  it  was  entitled.  Capt. 
John  Bursley  represents  the  original  settlers,  Mr.  Wm. 
Reade  those  who  favor  the  colonial  government,  while 
Mr.  John  Upham  is  the  selection  of  the  Hull  emigrants, 
and,  as  has  been  sometimes  the  case  in  later  days,  the 
patronage  of  the  ruling  power  proves  the  most  power- 
ful, and  Mr.  Reade  retains  his  seat,  while  his  two  com- 
petitors quietly  retire. 

This  of  course  did  not  tend  to  soothe  the  troubles, 
for,  as  we  have  already  seen,  they  grew  so  rapidly,  de- 
veloping mainly  in  the  church,  the  civil  powers  being 
too  powerful  for  open  resistance,  that  in  1637,  the  Gen- 
eral Court  deemed  it  necessary  to  interfere  and  ordered 
a  council  of  prominent  officers  and  ministers  to  settle 
the  diiferences.  This  was  followed  by  a  second,  neither 
party  being  willing  to  submit  to  an  adverse  decision. 
And,  as  if  this  difficulty  were  not  enough,  about  the 
same  time,  1637,  appeared  another  discordant  element 
in  the  person  of  Rev.  Robert  Lenthal,  who  had  already 
some  partizans  in  the  divided  parish.  He  needed  but 
little  solicitation  to  join  in  the  fray,  and  we  have  seen 
the  result  of  his  interference,  as  far  as  the  public  rec- 
ords show.  And  now,  in  1638,  Mr.  Samuel  Newman 
becomes  a  fourth  aspirant  for  the  Weymouth  pulpit. 
Truly  there  must  have  been  a  wonderfully  attractive- 
ness in  this  place  or  people  to  draw  so  many  illustrious 
teachers  thither  at  the  imminent  risk  of  woeful  discom- 
fiture.     Yet  nothing  can  be  more   certain  than  that 


112  WEYMOUTH   IN   ITS 

about  the  year  1638-9,  there  were  no  less  than  four 
ministers  urging  their  claims  to  the  pastorate  of  the 
Weymouth  church,  and  that  each  of  them  had  a  strong 
following;  nor  can  it  be  doubted  that  the  causes  that 
produced  this  state  of  aifairs  were  deep-seated  and 
some  of  them  of  long  standing. 

The  question  of  the  existence  of  the  church  through 
all  of  these  eventful  years  cannot  be  definitely  settled 
with  the  evidence  we  now  have.  We  have  proved  a 
permanent  and  comparatively  prosperous  settlement 
during  the  whole  of  this  period,  and  this  fact  argues 
a  strong  probability  of  a  church  oi-ganization,  for  in 
those  days  it  was  hardly  reputable  for  a  community  to 
be  without  one.  We  are  certain  of  Mr.  Morrell,  and 
we  have  important  testimony  in  favor  of  Mr.  Barnard, 
previous  to  1635,  —  another  argument  in  favor  of  the 
existence  of  a  church,  for  ministers  without  churches 
were  not  so  common  in  those  days  as  at  the  present 
time.  The  coming  of  Rev.  Joseph  Hull  in  1635,  a  reg- 
ularly ordained  minister,  and  of  three  others  in  the 
three  following  years,  without  any  record  of  tradition 
of  the  formation  of  a  church  during  that  period,  while 
there  are  many  references  to  a  church  already  existing, 
furnish  perhaps  the  strongest  argument  in  favor  of  a 
prior  organization. 

Negative  evidence,  or  lack  of  positive  statement, 
should  not  be  forced,  but  since  it  has  been  employed  to 
prove  the  formation  of  a  church  here  at  a  given  date, 
perhaps  we  may  be  permitted  to  urge  it  a  little  more 
strongly  in  favor  of  an  earlier  date  for  the  same  event. 
Tf  there  were,  as  is  admitted,  ten  other  churches  in  ex- 
istence on  the  shores  of  the  Bay  at  the  arrival  of  the 
Hull  company  in  1635,  and  that  company  proceeded 
immediately  to  form  the  eleventh,  in  accordance  with 
the  universal  custom,  several  of  the  preceding  ten  must 
have  been  called  to  assist  in  its  organization,  in  which 


FIEST   TWENTY   YEARS.  113 

case  we  can  hardly  conceive  it  possible  that  some  one 
at  least  of  the  nnmber  should  not  have  made  the  trans- 
action a  matter  of  record,  or  that  their  records  should 
not  in  some  way  allnde  to  it,  for  the  formation  of  a  new 
church  was  then  a  matter  of  some  importance,  but  no- 
where, in  church  or  state  or  private  records,  do  we  find 
the  slightest  intimation  of  such  an  event ;  whereas,  had 
there  been  a  church  formed  at  an  earlier  date,  when 
there  was  no  other  existing  on  the  shores  of  l^ew  Eng- 
land, besides  that  at  Plymouth,  and  that  not  in  sym- 
pathy, we  have  a  very  good  reason  why  we  hear 
nothing  of  it. 

The  material  needs  of  the  new  settlement  and  other 
causes  before  alluded  to  might  prevent  its  own  record, 
while  the  distractions  afterwards  existing,  and  the  con- 
sequent jealousies  between  the  contending  parties  might 
easily  forbid  any  subsequent  one.  The  theory  of  a 
regular  succession  of  pastors  beginning  with  Mr.  Hull 
in  1635,  and  following  down  through  Mr.  Jenner,  Mr. 
Lenthal  and  Mr.  Newman,  until  Mr.  Thacher  is  reached, 
has  been  a  favorite  one,  but  is  hardly  admissible  in  face 
of  the  evidence  already  produced,  which  would  rather 
go  to  show  the  attempted  formation  of  a  second  church 
b}^  some  of  the  conflicting  interests  in  opposition  to  one 
already  in  existence.  We  may  hope  at  some  time  to 
discover  further  testimony  with  which  to  settle  this 
vexed  question,  but  for  the  present  we  must  be  content 
to  allow  it  to  rest  upon  no  firmer  basis  than  jDrobabihty, 
yet  with  that  strongly  in  favor  of  a  much  earlier  or- 
ganization of  the  church,  reaching  back  perhaps  to 
1G23. 


WEYMOUTH  THIRTY  YEARS  LATER 


A  PAPER   READ   BY 


CHARLES  FRANCIS   ADAMS 

BEFORE    THE    WEYMOUTH    HISTORICAL    SOCIETY,     AT    THE    FOGG    OPERA 

HOUSE,  SOUTH  WEYMOUTH,  ON  THE  EVENING  OF  TUESDAY, 

THE  23d  SEPTEMBER,  1904. 


It  is  already  five  months  since  your  Society  celebrated 
the  completion  of  its  twenty-fifth  year.  It  may  be  said 
to  have  then  attained  its  majority.  Yet,  perhaps,  this 
middle  period  of  September  is  more  appropriate  for  your 
anniversary  than  a  day  in  April ;  for  towards  the  middle 
of  September,  1623,  that  is,  two  hundred  and  eighty- 
one  years  ago  at  this  time,  —  possibly  on  what  was 
then  the  thirteenth  of  the  month,  now  the  twenty- 
third,  —  Captain  Robert  Gorges,  at  the  head  of  a  little 
company  of  adventurers,  sat  down  at  Wessagusset. 
Thus,  as  nearly  as  can  now  be  ascertained,  the  penna- 
nent  settlement  of  a  part  of  what  has  for  hard  upon  two 
whole  centuries  and  three-quarters  of  another  been 
known  as  Weymouth,  —  the  second  permanent  settle- 
ment in  Massachusetts,  —  dates  from  this  season,  and, 
possibly,  from  this  day  of  September.  The  Weymouth 
Historical  Society  commemorates  the  event  to-night. 
It  might  well  commemorate  it  annually. 

But,  in  the  first  place,  I  crave  indulgence  while  I 
say  a  single  word  personal  to  myself.  I  want  to  ex- 
plain why  I  meant  to  be  here  last  April,  and  why  I  am 
here  now.      Towards  Weymoiith,  I  confess  to  a  pecul- 


WEYMOUTH   THIKTY   YEAKS  LATER.  115 

iarly  kindly  feeling.  ISTot  only  was  Weymouth  the 
birthplace  and  maiden  home  of  one  whom,  among  my 
ancestors,  I  specially  reverence,  but  to  Weymouth  I 
feel  under  personal  obligation.  It  is  a  short  story,  soon 
told;  it  relates  also  wholly  to  myself,  but  here  I  feel  at 
liberty  to  tell  it. 

Just  thirty  years  ago  last  spring,  on  a  day  in  April, 
if  my  memory  serves  me  right,  your  old-time  selectman, 
James  Humphrey,  —  remembered  by  you  as  "  Judge  " 
Humphrey,  —  called  at  my  office,  then  in  Pemberton 
Square,  Boston.  Taking  a  chair  by  my  desk,  he  next 
occasioned  wide-eyed  surprise  on  my  part  by  inviting 
me,  on  behalf  of  a  committee  of  the  town  of  Wey- 
mouth, to  deliver  an  historical  address  at  the  coming 
250th  anniversary  of  the  permanent  settlement  of  the 
place.  Recently  returned  to  civil  life  from  four  years 
of  active  militar}^  service,  and  nominally  a  lawyer,  I  was 
at  that  time  chairman  of  the  State  Board  of  Railroad 
Commissioners,  and,  as  such,  devoting  my  attention  to 
questions  connected  with  the  growth  and  development 
of  transportation.  To  independent  historical  investiga- 
tion I  had  never  given  a  thought.  As  to  Weymouth, 
I  very  honestly  confess  I  hardly  knew  where  the 
town  so  called  was,  much  less  anything  of  its  story; 
having  a  somewhat  vague  impression  only  that  my 
great-grandmother.  Parson  William  Smith's  daughter, 
Abigail,  had  been  born  there,  and  there  lived  her 
girlhood.  Such  was  my  surprise,  I  remember,  that 
I  suggested  to  Mr.  Humphrey  he  must  be  acting  un- 
der a  misapprehension,  intending  to  invite  some  other 
member  of  my  family,  possibly  my  father.  He,  how- 
ever, at  once  assured  me  such  was  not  the  case, 
satisfying  me  finally  that,  a  man  sober  and  in  his 
right  mind,  he  knew  what  he  was  about,  and  who  he 
was  talking  to.  Subsequently,  I  learned  that  he  did 
indeed  act  as  the  representative  of  a  committee  ap- 


116  WEYMOUTH   THIRTY   YEARS   LATER. 

pointed  at  the  last  annual  Weymouth  town  meeting; 
for  an  explanation  of  the  choice  appeared,  —  as  "a 
great-grandson  of  Abigail  (Smith)  Adams,  a  native  of 
"Weymouth,"  I  had  been  selected  for  the  task.  Over- 
coming my  surprise,  I  told  Mr.  Humphrey  I  would 
take  the  matter  under  consideration.  Doing  so,  I  finally 
concluded  to  accept.  Though  I  had  not  the  faintest 
idea  of  it  at  the  time,  that  acceptance  marked  for  me 
an  epoch ;  I  had,  in  fact,  come  to  a  tu]*ning-point  in 
life.  That,  instinctively,  if  somewhat  unadvisedly  and 
blindly,  I  followed  the  path  thus  unexpectedly  opened 
has  been  to  me  ever  since  cause  of  gratitude  to  Wey- 
mouth. For  thirty  years  it  has  led  me  through  pas- 
tures green  and  pleasant  places.  But  at  the  moment,  so 
little  did  I  know  of  the  earlier  history  of  Massachusetts, 
I  was  not  aware  that  any  settlement  had  been  effected 
hereabouts  immediately  after  that  at  Plymouth,  or  that 
the  first  name  of  the  place  was  Wessagusset;  nor, 
finally,  that  Thomas  Morton  had  at  about  the  same 
time,  erected  the  famous  May-pole  at  Merrymount,  on 
the  hill  opposite  where  I  dwelt.  Thus  the  field  into 
which  I  was  invited  was  one  wholly  new  to  me,  and 
unwittingly  I  entered  on  it;  but,  for  once,  fortune 
builded  for  me  better  than  I  knew.  I  began  on  a 
study  which  has  since  lasted  continuously. 

Weymouth  is,  therefore,  in  my  mind  closely  and  in- 
separably associated,  not  only  with  the  commencement 
of  what  I  dare  not  call  a  career,  but  with  a  fortuitous 
incident  which  led  for  me  to  more  pleasurable  pursuits 
than  elsewhere  it  has  been  given  me  to  follow. 

That  address  of  mine,  the  immediate  outcome  of  the 
invitation  extended  through  Mr.  Humphrey  in  1874, 
has  since  been  more  than  once  kindly  referred  to  by  in- 
vestigators here  in  Weymouth;  and,  I  infer  from  my 
being  here  to-night,  it  is  even  yet  not  wholly  forgotten. 
I  may  add  also  that  it  is  distinctly  the  cause  of  my 


WEYMOUTH  THIRTY  YEARS  LATER.  117 

being  here;  for,  as  six  months  ago  I  thought  over  your 
invitation  to  address  a  Weymouth  audience  once  more, 
it  seemed  to  offer  what  jnust  be  a  rare  opportunity  in 
any  hfe, —  an  opportunity  to  go  back,  after  years  of 
study  directed  largely  to  historical  topics,  more  espe- 
cially to  topics  connected  with  'New  England,  Massa- 
chusetts and  the  region  hereabout,  and  to  review  what 
I  in  the  beginning  said,  close  to  the  spot  where  I  said 
it.  Accordingly,  I  this  evening  propose  to  find  my  text 
in  what  I  uttered  on  King-oak  hill  thirty  years  ago 
last  July;  and,  in  so  doing,  to  pass  judgment  upon  it. 

For  a  first  performance,  I  will  honestly  confess  it 
does  not  seem  to  me,  as  I  now  look  over  it,  wholly  de- 
void of  merit.  Curiously  enough  also,  the  best  por- 
tions of  it  are  distinctly  the  closing  portions,  in  which 
I  wrote  with  a  warmth  and  feeling  absent  from  the 
earlier  part.  ^Nevertheless,  that  Weymouth  address  of 
1874,  as  I  now  see  it,  was,  as  a  whole,  wrong  in  con- 
ception and  faulty  in  execution.  It  was  wrong  in 
conception,  because  in  it  I  tried  to  cover  too  much 
ground.  That  it  was  defective  in  execution,  is  most 
apparent.  Accepting  an  invitation  to  deliver  a  com- 
memorative address  on  the  250th  anniversary  of  the 
permanent  settlement  of  Weymouth,  I  attempted  an 
historical  sketch  covering  the  town's  whole  existence. 
I  ought  to  have  confined  myself  to  a  close  analysis  of 
its  first  twenty  years.  That  period  would  have  opened 
to  me,  had  I  known  how  to  use  it,  a  field  of  investiga- 
tion at  once  ample  in  extent  and  curiously  rich.  INor 
is  this  all;  it  would  have  done  a  great  deal  more. 
Unwittingly,  I  missed  the  opportunity  of  a  life-time. 
Simply,  I  was  not  equal  to  the  occasion.  My  consola- 
tion is  that  few  would  have  been  equal  to  it.  But  of 
this,  more  presently. 

To  make  either  a  comprehensive  or  careful  analysis 
of  the  early  history  of  your  town  now,  is  out  of  my 


118  WEYMOUTH   THIRTY   YEARS   LATER. 

power;  nor  would  one  evening's  time  admit  of  it.  I 
will,  however,  say  that  to-day,  not  less  than  in  the  days 
of  the  late  James  Savage,  "  a  careful  history  of  Wey- 
mouth is  much  wanted."  *  l!^ine  years  after  my  prentice 
effort,  your  associate  and  recording  secretary,  Gilbert 
IN'ash,  approached  the  subject  both  with  a  better  com- 
jH-ehension,  and  a  knowledge  much  closer  and  far  wider 
than  I  could  boast.  But  my  effort,  supplemented 
though  it  was  by  him,  left  much  to  be  desired, —  a  de- 
sideratum it  should  be  the  mission  of  this  Society  to 
make  good. 

Turning  then  to  Wessagusset,  and  the  early  history 
of  Weymouth,  and  confining  myself  to  them,  I  find  its 
record  composed  of  two  parts : — the  Wessagusset  settle- 
ments, pre-historic  almost  in  character,  and  the  subse- 
quent struggling  into  life  of  Weymouth,  in  the  early 
years  of  the  colony.  The  story  of  Wessagusset  is  in 
itself  curiously  interesting,  as  well  as  of  momentous 
importance;  and  it  was  in  connection  with  that  I  missed 
the  opportunity  of  a  life-time,  to  which  I  just  referred. 
It  vexes  me  now  to  think  of  it.  It  even  brings  to  mind 
Whittier's  familiar  lines : 

"  For  of  all  sad  words  of  tongue  or  pen, 
The  saddest  are  these:  '  It  might  have  been! '  " 

It  came  about  in  this  wise :  — Weymouth  is  very  classic 
ground ;  to  what  an  extent  it  is  classic  I  certainly  did  not 
at  the  time  now  in  question  appreciate ;  nor,  I  am  confi- 
dent, did  your  people  appreciate  it.  Not  only  did  some 
of  the  most  dramatic,  as  well  as  momentous,  episodes  in 
the  early  life  of  Massachusetts  here  occur,  but  it  so 
chanced  that  one  at  least  of  those  ejnsodes  has  been 
woven  into  a  poem  familiar  as  a  household  word.  I 
refer,  of  course,  to  Longfellow's  "Courtship  of  Miles 
Standish."    It  was  with  that  I  should  forever  have  con- 

1  Savage's  Wlnthrop,  v.  1,  p.  194,  n. 


WEYMOUTH    THIRTY   YEARS   LATER.  119 

nectecl  m\^  effort  of  1874;  I  should  have  vindicated  his- 
tory, while  showing  how,  as  material  for  poetical  treat- 
ment, Longfellow  had  failed  to  nse  it  as  it  might  have 
been  used.  He  also  had  proved  unequal  to  the  occasion. 
You  remember  the  episode  in  Longfellow's  poem  to 
which  I  refer;  it  is  the  seventh  part,  entitled  "The 
March  of  Miles  Standish."  I  would  like  to  read  the 
whole  of  this  part  to  you;  and  then,  in  sharp  contrast, 
set  before  you  the  historic  facts.  I  must,  however, 
confine  myself  to  some  two  score  lines  of  the  poem, 
enough  to  recall  its  spirit,  and  follow  them  with  a  mere 
outline  of  the  actual  facts.     But  that  will  sufl&ce: 

"  Meanwhile  the  stalwart  Miles  Standish  was  marching  steadil)^  north- 
ward, 
Winding  through  forest  and  swamp,  and  along  the  trend  of  the  seashore. 


"  After  a  three  days'  march  he  came  to  an  Indian  encampment 
Pitched  on  the  edge  of  a  meadow,  between  the  sea  and  the  forest; 
Women  at  work  by  the  tents,  and  the  warriors,  horrid  with  war  paint. 
Seated  about  a  fire,  and  smoking  and  talking  together; 
Who,  when  they  saw  from  afar  the  sudden  approach  of  the  white  men, 
Saw  the  flash  of  the  sun  on  breastplate  and  sabre  and  musket, 
Straightway  leaped  to  their  feet,  and  two,  from  among  them  advancing, 
Came  to  parley  with  Standish,  and  offer  him  furs  as  a  present; 
Friendship  was  in  their  looks,  but  in  their  hearts  there  was  hatred. 
Braves  of  the  tribe  were  these,  and  brothers  gigantic  in  stature, 
Huge  as  Goliath  of  Gath,  or  the  terrible  Og,  king  of  Bashan; 
One  Avas  Pecksuot  named,  and  the  other  was  called  Wattawamat. 


"  But  when  he  heard  their  defiance,  the  boast,  the  taunt,  and  the  insult. 
All  the  hot  blood  of  his  race,  of  Sir  Hugh  and  of  Thurston  de  Standish, 
Boiled  and  beat  in  his  heart,  and  swelled  in  the  veins  of  his  temples. 
Headlong  he  leaped  on  the  boaster,  and,  snatching  his  knife  from  its 

scabbard, 
Plunged  it  into  his  heart,  and,  reeling  backward,  the  savage 
Fell  with  his  face  to  the  sky,  and  a  fiendlike  fierceness  upon  it. 
Straight  there  arose  from  the  forest  the  aM^ful  sound  of  the  war-whoop, 
And,  like  a  flurry  of  snow  on  the  whistling  wind  of  December, 
Swift  and  sudden  and  keen  came  a  flight  of  feathery  arrows. 
Then  came  a  cloud  of  smoke,  and  out  of  the  cloud  came  the  lightning. 
Out  of  the  lightning  thunder;  and  death  unseen  ran  before  it. 
Frightened  the  savages  fled  for  shelter  in  swamp  and  in  thicket, 


120  WEYMOUTH  THIRTY  YEA  US  LATER. 

Hotlj'  pursued  aud  beset;  but  their  sachem,  the  brave  Wattawanrat, 

Fled  not;  he  was  dead.     Unswerving  and  swift  had  a  bullet 

Passed  through  his  brain,  and  he  fell  with  both  hands  clutching  the 

greensward, 
Seeming  in  death  to  hold  back  from  his  foe  the  land  of  his  fathers. 

"  There  on  the  flowers  of  the  meadow  the  warriors  lay,  and  above  them, 
Silent,  with  folded  arms,  stood  Hobomok,  friend  of  the  white  man. 


"  Thus  the  first  battle  was  fought  and  won  by  the  stalwart  Miles  Stan- 
dish. 
When  the  tidings  thereof  were  brought  to  the  village  of  Plymouth, 
And  as  a  trophy  of  war  the  head  of  the  brave  Wattawamat 
Scowled  from  the  roof  of  the  fort,  which  at  once  was  a  church  and  a 

fortress, 
All  who  beheld  it  rejoiced,  aud  praised  the  Lord,  and  took  courage." 

Such  is  the  poet's  rendering;  now  what  were  the 
facts?  We  all  recognize  in  these  cases  what  is  known 
as  "poetic  license."  It  is  the  unquestioned  privilege  of 
the  poet  to  so  mould  hard  facts  and  actual  conditions 
as  to  make  realities  conform  to  his  idea  of  the  everlast- 
ing fitness  of  things.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is  but  fair 
that,  in  so  doing,  the  artist  should  improve  on  the  facts. 
In  other  words,  he  should  at  least  not  make  them  more 
prosaic,  and  distinctly  less  dramatic,  than  they  were. 
In  the  present  case,  I  submit,  Longfellow,  instead  of 
rendering  things  more  poetic  and  dramatic,  made  them 
distinctly  less  so.     This  I  shall  now  proceed  to  show. 

And  here  let  me  premise  that  it  was  the  habit  of 
Longfellow,  as  I  think  the  unfortunate  habit,  to  impro- 
vise, —  so  to  speak,  to  evolve  from  his  inner  conscious- 
ness,—  the  local  atmosphere  and  conditions  of  those 
poems  of  his  in  which  he  dealt  with  history  and  his- 
torical happenings.  It  was  so  with  the  "  Kide  of  Paul 
Revere;"  it  was  so  with  the  episodes  made  use  of  in  the 
"  Tales  of  a  Wayside  Inn; "  it  is  notorious  it  was  so  in 
the  case  of  "Evangeline"  and  Acadia;  it  was  strik- 
ingly, and  far  more  inexcusably,  so  in  the  case  of  "  Miles 
Standish"  and  Plymouth.     While   preparing  a  poem 


WEYMOUTH   THIRTY   YEAES   LATER.  121 

which  has  deservedly  become  an  American  classic,  as 
such  throwing  a  glamour  of  romance  over  that  entire 
region  to  which  it  has  given  the  name  of  the  "  Evan- 
geline Country,"  Longfellow  never  sought  to  draw 
inspiration  from  actual  contact  with  that  "  forest  pri- 
meval" of  which  he  sang;  nor  again,  when  dealing 
with  the  events  of  our  own  early  history,  did  he  once 
visit,  much  less  study,  the  scene  of  that  which  he  pic- 
tured. He  imagined  everything.  I  gravely  question 
whether  he  even  knew  that  the  conflict  he  describes  in 
the  lines  I  have  just  quoted  took  place  on  the  shores  of 
Boston  bay,  and  at  a  point  not  twenty  miles  from  the 
historic  mansion  in  which  he  lived,  and  the  library 
where  he  imagined.  He  certainly,  and  more's  the  pity, 
never  stood  on  King-oak  hill,  or  sailed  up  the  Fore- 
river. 

What  actually  occurred  here  in  April,  1623,  I  have 
endeavored  elsewhere  to  describe  in  detail,  just  as  it 
appears  in  our  early  records.  Those  curious  on  the 
subject  will  find  my  narrative  in  a  chapter  (vi)  entitled 
"  The  Smoking  Flax  Blood-Quenched,"  in  a  work  of 
mine,  the  matured  outcome  of  my  address  here  in  1874, 
called  "  Three  Episodes  of  Massachusetts  History."  To 
that  I  refer  them.  Meanwhile,  suffice  it  for  me  now  to 
say,  the  actual  occurrences  of  those  early  April  days 
were  stronger,  more  virile,  and  infinitely  more  dramatic 
and  better  adapted  to  poetic  treatment,  —  in  one  word, 
more  Homeric, —  than  the  wholly  apocryphal,  and  some- 
what mawkish,  cast  given  them  in  the  lines  I  have 
quoted.  Indeed,  so  far  as  the  incidents  drawn  from 
the  history  of  Weymouth  are  concerned,  the  whole  is, 
in  the  original  records,  replete  with  vigorous  life.  It 
smacks  of  the  savage;  it  is  racy  of  the  soil;  it  smells 
of  the  sea.  It  begins  with  the  flight  of  Phineas  Pratt 
from  Wessagusset  to  Plymouth,  his  loss  of  the  way, 
his  fear  lest  his  foot-prints  in  the  late-lingering  snow 


122  WEYMOUTH  THIRTY  YEARS  LATER. 

banks  should  betray  him,  his  nights  in  the  woods,  his 
pursuit  by  the  Indians,  his  guidance  by  the  stars  and 
sky,  his  fording  the  icy  river,  and  his  arrival  in  Ply- 
mouth just  as  Miles  Standish  was  embarking  for  Wes- 
sagusset.  Nothing  then  can  be  more  picturesque,  more 
epic  in  outline,  than  Standish's  voyage,  with  his  little 
company  of  grim,  silent  men  in  that  oj^en  boat.  Sternly 
bent  on  action,  they  skirted,  under  a  gloomy  eastern  sky, 
along  the  surf-beaten  shore,  the  mist  driving  in  their 
faces  as  the  swelling  seas  broke  roughly  in  white  surge 
over  the  rocks  and  ledges  which  still  obstruct  the  course 
they  took.  From  the  distance  came  the  dull,  monoto- 
nous roar  of  the  breakers,  indicating  the  line  of  the  coast. 
At  last  they  cast  anchor  before  the  desolate  and  appar- 
ently deserted  block-house  here  in  your  Fore-river, 
and  presently  some  woe-begone  stragglers  answered 
their  call.  N^ext  came  the  meeting  with  the  savages, 
the  fencing  talk,  and  the  episode  of  what  Holmes,  in 
still  another  poem,  refers  to  as, 

"  Wituwamet's  pictured  knife 
And  Pecksuot's  whooping  shout ;  " 

all  closing  with  the  fierce  hand-to-hand  death  grapple 
on  the  blood-soaked,  slippery  floor  of  the  rude  stock- 
ade. Last  of  all  the  return  to  Plymouth,  with  the  gory 
head  of  Wattawamat,  "  that  bloody  and  bold  villain," 
a  ghastly  freight,  stowed  in  the  rummage  of  their 
boat. 

The  whole  story  is,  in  the  originals,  full  of  life,  sim- 
plicity and  vigor,  needing  only  to  be  turned  into  verse. 
But,  in  place  of  the  voyage,  we  have  in  Longfellow's 
poem  a  march  through  the  woods,  which,  having  never 
taken  place,  has  in  it  nothing  characteristic;  an  in- 
terview before  an  Indian  encampment  "  pitched  on  the 
edge  of  a  meadow,  between  the  sea  and  the  forest,"  at 
which  the  knife  scene  is  enacted,  instead  of  in  the  rude 


WEYMOUTH  THIRTY  YEARS  LATER.  123 

block-house ;  and,  finally,  the  killing  takes  place  amid  a 
discharge  of  firearms,  and  "  there  on  the  flowers  of  the 
meadow  the  warriors  "  are  made  to  lie;  whereas  in  fact 
they  died  far  more  vigorously,  as  well  as  poetically,  on 
the  bloody  floor  of  the  log-house  in  which  they  were 
surprised,  "  not  making  any  fearful  noise,  but  catching 
at  their  weapons  and  striving  to  the  last."  And  as 
for  "  flowers,"  it  was  early  in  April,  and,  in  spots,  the 
snow  still  lingered ! 

That  Longfellow  wrote  very  sweet  verse,  none  will 
deny;  but,  assuredly,  he  was  not  Homeric.  At  his 
hands  your  Weymouth  history  failed  to  have  justice 
done  it.     The  case  is,  I  fear,  irremediable. 

Another  cause  of  great  subsequent  regret  to  me  has 
been  the  fact  that,  in  1874,  the  exact  locality  of  the  site 
of  the  original  IVessagusset  settlement,  and  of  Weston's 
block-house,  in  which  took  place  the  death  grapple 
just  referred  to,  was  not  known.  Tradition  asserted 
that  it  was  somewhere  on  Phillips  creek,  above  the 
Fore-river  bridge.  Seventeen  years  later,  in  a  volume 
entitled  "  The  Defences  of  l^orumbega,"  published  in 
1891,  by  the  late  Prof.  E.  K.  Horsford,  I  chanced  across 
a  reproduction  of  Gov.  Winthrop's  map  of  Massachu- 
setts bay  of  1634.  This  map  was  in  1884  discovered 
by  Henry  Waters,  among  the  maiuiscripts  of  the  Sloan 
collection,  ]3reserved  in  the  British  Museum.^  A  por- 
tion of  it,  covering  the  Weymouth  Fore-river  and 
the  Wessagusset  site,  was  reproduced  in  the  printed 
"  Proceedings  of  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society  " 
(Second  Series,  vol.  vii,  pp.  22-30),  and  thereon  is  indi- 
cated the  site  of  the  original  Wessagusset.  That  site 
no  longer  exists ;  and  it  will  ever  be  matter  of  profound 
regret   to  me  that   the  spot  was  not  known,  and  the 

1  Concerning  this  cui'ious  and  very  interesting  map,  see  Pruceedings 
Mass.  HM.  Sue.  (Second  Series),  v.  1,  pp.  211-214.  There  is  a  reijroduction 
of  the  map  in  the  large-paper  edition  of  Winsor's  Narrative  and  Critical 
Bistory  of  America.,  v.  3,  p.  380,  with  a  descriptive  note  relating  thereto. 


124  WEYMOUTH  THIRTY  YEARS  LATER. 

exact  location  fixed,  a  few  years  earlier,  at  the  time  of 
the  celebration  of  1874.  The  spot  was  then  unimproved, 
as  the  expression  goes ;  it  has  since  been  "  improved  " 
out  of  existence.  Sold  for  a  trifling  sum  as  a  gravel, 
oi'  a  material,  pit,  had  what  has  since  come  to  light 
then  been  known,  it  might  have  been  secured,  and 
dedicated  forever  as  a  public  water  park  fronting  on 
the  Fore-river.  A  permanent  memorial  should  there 
have  been  erected. 

Instead,  bodily  carried  away,  it  has  literally  been  cast 
into  the  sea 5  and  the  tide  now  daily  ebbs  and  flows 
over  the  spot  where,  two  hundred  and  eighty-two  years 
ago  last  April,  Thomas  "Weston's  "  stout  knaves  "  es- 
tablished themselves;  and  where,  on  April  6,  1623,  that 
hand-to-hand  death  grapple  took  place  between  Miles 
Standish  and  the  fierce  Pecksuot,  the  result  of  which 
struck  terror  to  the  hearts  of  the  Massachusetts  sav- 
ages, and  gave  immediate  safety,  and  years  of  subse- 
quent peace,  to  the  infant  Plymouth  plantation. 

Thus,  what  occurred  at  Wessagusset  in  that  pre-his- 
toric  period  has  been  in  poetry  and  common  acceptance 
so  disguised,  perverted  and  transmogrified  as  to  have 
lost  all  semblance  of  itself.  It  can  no  longer  be  recog- 
nized; while  the  place  where  it  all  occurred  has  ceased 
to  be.  So  it  only  for  us  remains  to  recur  to  actuali- 
ties. 

In  one  other  aspect  the  temporary  lodgment  of 
Thomas  Weston's  "  rude  fellows "  here  in  Weymouth 
from  June,  1622,  to  April,  1623,  has  an  interest  in  the 
Massachusetts  annals.  It  is  characteristic  of  a  distinct 
phase  in  the  first  attempts  at  the  European  occupation 
of  New  England.  I  used  the  word  "  occupation  "  de- 
signedly, for  those  sporadic  trading  stations  cannot  be 
referred  to  correctly  as  settlements;  they  contained  in 
themselves  no  power  of  self-perpetuation,  being  com- 
posed wholly  of  men  engaged  for  wages  in  an  eflbrt 


WEYMOUTH   THTKTY   YEARS    LATER.  125 

at  the  trade  exploitation  of  a  region.  This  is  wholly 
diiferent  from  colonization  in  good  faith.  Thomas 
Weston  acted  on  a  well-defined  plan,  when,  early  in 
1622,  he  dispatched  his  company  to  establish  them- 
selves somewhere  on  the  shores  of  Massachnsctts  bay. 
He  himself  expressed  it :  —  "  Families,"  he  said,  "  were 
an  encumbrance  in  any  well-organized  plantation;  but 
a  trading-post  occupied  by  able-bodied  men  only  could 
accomplish  more  in  'New  England  in  seven  years  than 
in  old  England  in  twenty." 

Nov  was  his,  here  at  Wessagusset,  by  any  means  the 
earliest  attempt  of  the  sort.  On  the  contrary,  it  had 
been  preceded  by  a  score  of  years ;  and,  twelve  months 
ago,  on  the  1st  day  of  September,  1903,  the  300th  anni- 
versary was  observed  of  the  similar,  but  even  more 
abortive,  experiment  made  by  Ca^^t.  Bartholomew  Gos- 
nold  on  the  island  of  Cuttyhunk,  at  the  extreme  western 
end  of  the  Elizabethan  grouj),  off  New  Bedford.  Again, 
three  years  later,  in  August,  1607,  a  similar  attempt  was 
made  further  to  the  eastward,  when  the  Popham  and 
Gorges  plantation  was  established  on  the  Kennebec. 
In  that  case,  the  adventurers  did  actually  winter  on  the 
coast;  but,  as  the  survivors  described  their  experience, 
they  found  the  country  "  over  cold,  and  in  respect  of 
that  not  habitable  by  Englishmen." 

At  this  time,  as  probably  long  before  and  con- 
tinuously thereafter,  Monhegan  island,  southwest  of 
Penobscot  bay,  seems  to  have  been  a  rendezvous  for 
fishermen ;  and  when,  in  the  early  spring  of  1622,  those 
composing  the  advance  of  Thomas  Weston's  company 
arrived  at  the  Damariscove  station,  on  the  group  of 
islands  just  south  of  Penobscot  bay,  they  found  that 
the  men  belonging  to  the  ships  there  fishing  "  had 
newly  set  up  a  May-pole  and  were  very  merry."  But, 
a  band  of  sea-farers  only,  there  were  no  families  in  that 
company.     These,  one  and  all,  were  mere    fishing  or 


126  WEYMOUTH   THIRTY   YEARS   LATER. 

trading  posts ;  and,  so  far  as  I  have  been  able  to  learn, 
not  until  the  Mayflower  put  into  Provincetown  harbor 
on  what  is  now  the  21st  of  November,  1620,  had  any 
women  of  European  blood  ever  set  foot  on  Kew  Eng- 
land soil.  That  day  is  properly  celebrated.  It  marked 
the  close  of  the  trade-exploiting  period,  and  the  begin- 
ning of  true  colonization. 

With  almost  no  interval  between,  or,  at  most,  with  an 
interval  of  less  than  six  months,  —  from  early  April  to 
mid-September,  —  the  Gorges  settlement  followed,  here 
at  Weymouth,  on  that  of  Weston.  Except  in  one  re- 
spect, I  now  find  my  thirty-years-ago  treatment  of  this 
Gorges  settlement  not  unsatisfactory.  I  failed  to  grasp 
its  significance  in  connection  with  the  European  occu- 
pation of  Massachusetts ;  and  in  that  connection  it  has 
a  very  considerable  significance.  To  a  certain  ex- 
tent Mr.  Kash  afterwards  made  good  my  deficiencies. 
ISTevertheless,  the  story  has,  I  apprehend,  even  yet, 
never  been  fully  told.  To  tell  it  should  be  one  of  the 
chief  functions  of  your  Society.  I  will  endeavor  briefly 
to  outline  it,  as  I  now  surmise  it  to  have  been.  For, 
with  inquirers  into  the  events  of  a  remote  past,  it  is 
much  as  it  is  with  persons  looking  for  things  in  dark 
places.  The  intellectual  perceptions,  like  the  eyes, 
by  degrees  become  accustomed  to  a  murky  environ- 
ment; and  when  so  accustomed,  things  quite  invisi- 
ble to  others  are  by  long-time  investigators  distinctly 
seen. 

When  that  work  of  mine  to  which  I  have  already 
referred, —  the  "Three  Episodes  of  Massachusetts  His- 
tory," —  appeared,  now  ten  years  ago,  the  introductory 
part  was  entitled  "  The  First  Settlement  of  Boston 
Bay."  Recently,  a  fifth  impression  has  been  called  for, 
and  this  afforded  me  an  opj)ortunity  for  a  second  pre- 
face to  it,  of  some  significajice.  When  the  book  first 
appeared,  it   naturally  passed   into   the   hands  of  re- 


WEYMOUTH   THIRTY   YEARS    LATER.  127 

viewei's.  As  a  rule,  those  reviews  were  not  unfriendly; 
but  the  writer  of  one  of  them  displayed,  in  perfect  good 
faith,  his  absolute  and  complete  inability  to  grasp  the 
elementary  significance  of  the  work  before  him.  Sup- 
posing that  the  "■  First  Settlement "  there  referi'ed  to 
was  that  of  Winthrop,  in  1680,  he  intimated  doubt  as 
to  the  necessity  for  any  further  account  of  that  inci- 
dent, it  having  been  already  sufficiently  dealt  with.  The 
man  failed  to  get  even  a  glimmering  perception  of  the 
fact  that  I  was  therein  endeavoring  to  exhume,  and,  so 
to  speak,  to  vivify,  a  23re-historic  settlement,  one  anterior 
to  that  of  Winthrop,  and  obliterated  by  it;  as  much 
obliterated  by  it  as  are  the  ruins  of  earlier  Egyptian 
temples,  a  succession  of  which  have  occupied  the  same 
site.  I  was,  in  fact,  a  sort  of  historical  resurrectionist. 
Thus,  as  I  sought  to  show,  the  real  first  settlement  of 
the  region  about  Boston  bay  was  considerably  prior  to 
that  of  Winthrop;  and,  beginning  with  Weston's  ven- 
ture in  June,  1622,  was,  some  ten  years  later,  merged 
in  that  of  Boston.  But,  for  years  before  Winthrop 
came,  the  region  about  Boston  bay  was  occupied;  and, 
moreover,  nearly  all  those  stragglers,  —  the  "  old  plant- 
ers" they  were  called, — came  from  Weymouth.  Wey- 
mouth thus  antedated  Boston  as  a  permanent  European 
settlement  by  at  least  six  years. 

This  fact  I  endeavored  to  establish,  and  fix  in  our 
Massachusetts  history;  and,  moreover,  the  fact  has 
singular  historical  interest.  It  was  a  struggle  for  pos- 
session between  two  forms  of  civilization  and  of  religi- 
ous faith.  The  Gorges  settlement  Avas  ecclesiastical 
and  feudal;  that  led  by  Winthrop  was  theological  and 
democratic:  that  is,  both  as  respects  church  and  state, 
the  Gorges  attempt  at  Wessagusset  was  the  antithesis, 
the  direct  opposite,  to  the  Winthrop  accomplishment  at 
Shawmut.  Moreover,  the  fate  of  the  two  settlements 
during  the  earlier  and  crucial  period  depended  not  on 


128  WEYMOUTH    TiriRTY    YEAUS    LATER. 

events  in  Massachusetts,  but  upon  a  struggle  for  su- 
premacy going  on  in  England.  Gorges  represented 
Charles  I;  Winthrop,  the  Parliament.  If  the  fortune 
of  war  had  turned  otherwise  than  it  did  turn,  and 
Charles  I  had  emerged  from  the  conflict  victorious, 
there  can  be  little  question  Sir  Ferdinando  Gorges,  and 
not  John  Winthrop,  would  have  shaped  the  destiny 
of  Massachusetts.  Its  history  would  then  have  been 
wholly  other  than  it  was. 

In  discussing  the  developments  of  the  past, — the  se- 
quence of  history, —  it  is  never  worth  while  to  philoso- 
phize over  what  might  have  been,  had  something, 
which  did  not  happen,  chanced  to  happen  at  the  crucial 
moment.  What  did  occur,  actually  occurred;  and  not 
something  else.  ]!!^one  the  less,  so  far  as  Weymouth 
is  concerned,  the  forgotten  story  of  that  abortive 
Gorges  attempt  at  a  feudal  pre-emption,  is  history; 
and,  moreover,  it  is  an  extremely  suggestive  bit  of  his- 
tory. At  one  time,  the  chances  seemed  to  preponder- 
ate in  favor  of  Gorges,  and  against  Winthrop.  First 
on  the  ground,  the  Gorges  settlement  represented  pre- 
rogative at  a  period  when  king  and  primate  had  it  all 
their  own  way.  The  permanence  of  the  Puritan  colony 
was  thus  for  a  time  at  stake;  and,  indeed,  it  was  years 
before  the  Gorges  claims  ceased  to  occasion  anxiety  in 
the  Boston  council  chamber.  More  than  once  a  royal 
intervention,  from  which  there  was  no  apparent  avenue 
of  escape,  seemed  imminent.  The  single  possible  re- 
course was  to  a  policy  of  delay,  of  procrastination; 
and,  while  pursuing  it,  those  entrusted  with  the  fate  of 
the  infant  commonwealth  watched  in  fear  and  trembling 
the  slow  course  of  English  events,  as  they  unfolded 
themselves  towards  a  doubtful  end.  Time,  and  the 
chances  of  war  on  the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic,  at 
last  dispelled  danger;  but  the  Wessagusset  settlement, 
prior  in  time,  long  made  itself  sensibly  felt  as  a  disturb- 


WEYMOUTH   THIRTY   YEARS   LATER.  129 

ing  factor  in  Massachusetts  development.  And  now, 
looking  back  on  the  celebration  held  here  in  1874,  and 
my  own  contribution  to  it,  I  think  I  may  fairly  claim 
that  form  and  substance  were  at  that  time  and  there 
given  to  a  chapter  of  history  then  altogether  forgotten; 
but,  when  revived,  not  devoid  of  interest,  because  ex- 
planatory of  much,  before  mysterious. 

The  Gorges  settlement,  moreover,  was,  I  take  it,  a 
true  settlement,  not  a  mere  attempt  at  trade  exploita- 
tion. And  by  a  true  settlement  I  mean  that  it  con- 
tained in  itself  the  possibility  of  continued  life ;  it  was 
self-perpetuating,  for  those  composing  it  were  in  part 
women.  Of  it,  every  line  of  contemporaneous  record 
long  since  perished.  That  such  a  record  once  existed, 
we  know.  In  the  inventory  made  after  his  death  of  the 
property  of  William  Blackstone,  the  recluse  of  Shaw- 
mut,  among  the  titles  of  a  not  inconsiderable  library  is 
found  the  significant  item,  "  ten  paper  books."  They 
were  valued  at  six  pence  each;  but,  in  all  human  prob- 
ability, those  "  paper  books "  contained  Blackstone's 
day-by-day  account  of  what  occurred  during  the  eleven 
years  which  elapsed  between  his  landing  at  Wessagus- 
set  in  1623,  and  his  removal  from  Boston  in  1634. 
Tliose  "  paper  books  "  we,  moreover,  know,  preserved 
for  over  forty  years  and  until  the  death  of  him  who 
wrote  in  them,  perished  a  month  later  in  the  flame  and 
smoke  which  marked  the  outbreak  of  King  Philip's 
war.  In  the  next  century  also  when,  about  1750, 
Thomas  Prince  compiled  his  Annals,  he  made  reference 
to  "  manuscript  letters,  taken  from  some  of  the  oldest 
people  at  Weymouth."  These  also  are  hopelessly  gone. 
Thus  we  have  not,  nor  can  we  now  reasonably  hope 
ever  to  have,  any  direct  and  authentic  memorials  of 
earliest  Weymouth.  We  do  know,  however,  that  Sam- 
uel Maverick  came  to  Massachusetts  bay  in  1624,  and 
that  he  was  associated  with  Gorges.     That  he  came  to 


130  WEYMOUTH   THIRTY   YEARS   LATER. 

Wessagiisset,  cannot  be  asserted.^  The  place  was 
outside  the  Ihnits  of  the  Kobert  Gorges  patent,  and 
Maverick  permanently  established  himself  across  the 
bay  at  Chelsea,  then  known  as  Winnisimmet.  He  there 
married  the  widow  of  David  Thompson,  another  Gorges 
associate  and  the  first  occupant  of  Thompson's  island, 
which,  at  the  mouth  of  the  I^eponset,  still  perpetuates 
his  name.  To  Samuel  Maverick  a  son  was  born  be- 
fore 1630. 

Thomas  "Walford,  also  one  of  the  Gorges  following, 
that  doughty  blacksmith  of  Chariestown  who,  by  kill- 
ing a  wolf,  discharged  the  fine  imposed  on  him  because 
of  nonconformity  in  church-going,  was  a  mai-ried 
man. 

Of  William  Jeffreys  and  John  Burslam,  we  know 
only  that  they  remained  at  Wessagusset,  and  were  living 
here,  apparently  in  prosperous  circumstances,  at  the 
time  the  place  was  mcorporated  as  Weymouth.  We 
do  not  know  positively  that  they  were  married,  or  had 
families ;  but  the  inference  is  strong  that  such  was  the 
case.  They  were  not  adventurers,  mere  wanderers,  of 
the  Thomas  Weston  and  Thomas  Morton  stripe.     They 

1  As  both  Maverick  and  Blackstone  were  men  of  education,  and  appar- 
ently not  -without  some  means,  belonging  distinctly  to  the  upper  class  of 
English  life,  and  as  they  were  also  contemporaries  of  young  Robert  Gorges, 
it  would  seem  more  than  probable  that  they  were  associates  of  his,  and 
came  over  to  Jfew  England  in  his  party.  Morell  certainly  was  another  of 
the  same  class.  As  respects  Maverick,  though  he  distinctly  says  he  came 
to  New  England  in  1624,  yet  he  makes  the  statement  forty  years  after  the 
event,  and  as  a  matter  of  recollection.  He  was  not  speaking  exactly,  nor 
apparently  from  record.  He  may  very  well,  therefore,  have  got  the  time 
generally  as  1624,  when  in  fact  he  arrived  here  late  in  1623;  or  he  may 
have  removed  from  Wessagusset  to  Winnisimmet,  and  there  established 
himself  permanently  during  the  spring  of  the  following  year.  Hence  his 
statement.  On  the  other  hand,  it  has  been  suggested  that  he  came  over 
with  Capt.  Christopher  Levett,  and  plausible  grounds  can  be  given  in  sup- 
port of  such  a  theory.  The  exact  date  and  circumstances  of  his  coming 
will  probably  never  be  known.  The  only  facts  which  can  be  stated  with 
certainty  are  that  he  came  about  the  same  time  as  Robert  Gorges,  and 
that  he  was  more  or  less  associated  with  Robert  Gorges's  father,  Sir 
Ferdinando.  That  he  married  the  widow  of  David  Thompson  also  does 
not  admit  of  doubt. 


WEYMOUTH   THIRTY   YEARS   LATER.  131 

had  given  hostages  to  fortune,  and  had  a  stake  in  the 
country. 

When  my  address  of  1874  was  published,  in  one  of 
the  foot-notes^  to  it  I  dismissed  as  improbable  an  en- 
try in  Prince's  Annals  to  the  effect  that,  in  1624,  there 
came  "  some  addition  to  the  few  inhabitants  of  Wes- 
sagusset,  from  Weymouth,  England,"  having  with  them 
the  Rev.  Mr.  Bai'nard,  their  first  non-conformist  min- 
ister. Mr.  ISTash,  in  his  paper  entitled  "  Weymouth  in 
its  First  Twenty  Years,"  has  taken  a  different  view, 
setting  forth  in  much  detail  his  reasons  for  believing 
the  fact  stated.  Very  possibly  I  was  wrong,  and  he 
is  right;  and  certainly  it  is  corroborative  evidence  of 
his  rightness  that  Samuel  Maverick  fixes  that  year, 
1624,  as  the  time  of  his  coming  to  ISTew  England,  and 
Boston  bay.  Possibly  he  was  one  of  Mr.  Barnard's 
company;  and  he  certainly  afterwards  sympathized  in 
Mr.  Barnard's  religious  views. 

Into  these  questions  it  is  unnecessary  to  enter.  Nor 
would  it  be  profitable  so  to  do;  for  the  salient  facts  are 
indisputably  established  that  (1),  the  first  Goi'ges  con- 
tingent came  out  and  set  themselves  down  at  Old  Spain 
in  September,  1623;  that  (2),  the  settlement  there  has 
been  continuous  from  that  day  to  this;  (3),  some  of 
those  thus  sent  out  under  the  auspices  of  Gorges  had 
families  and  left  descendants;  and  finally,  (4)  that,  start- 
ing from  Wessagusset,  these  first  planters  established 
themselves  at  points  favorable  for  commercial  dealings 
in  pelts  and  supplies  on  the  north,  as  well  as  the  south, 
side  of  Boston  bay.  That  William  Blackstone,  the 
earliest  occupant  of  the  historic  peninsula  on  which 
Boston  rose,  was  one  of  the  Gorges  company  admits 
of  no  question  at  all;  that  he  came  over  as  one  of  the 
companions  of  Capt.  Kobert  Gorges  and  the  Rev.  Wil- 
liam Morell  scarcely  admits  of  question.     Beyond  this, 

^  Supra,  p.  36, 


132  WEYMOUTH   THIRTY   YEARS   LATER. 

while  all  is  matter  of  surmise,  that  "  all "  is  merely  a 
question  of  more  or  less. 

But,  whether  the  infant  community  was  a  puny 
bantling  or  a  vigorous  brat,  I  now  find  myself  com- 
pelled to  admit  that  its  significance,  and  the  secret  of 
its  later  history  down  to  the  time  when,  in  1614, —  a 
full  score  of  years  after  the  first  settlement, —  it  was 
swallowed  up,  and  its  individuality  forever  lost,  in  an 
all  absorbing  environment,  —  the  significance,  I  say, 
of  this  later  history  wholly  escaped  my  observation 
when  I  prepared  the  address  of  1874.  As  I  have  said, 
Mr.  J^ash  has,  to  a  certain  extent,  since  made  good 
my  deficiences;  I  suspect,  however,  that  even  yet  the 
riddle  is  but  partially  read.  To  be  adequately  treated, 
its  treatment  should  be  j)atient  and  microscopic.  It 
should  be  studied  in  close  connection  with  the  course 
both  of  foreign  events  and  of  events  in  that  subsequent 
agitation  which,  rending  in  twain  the  nascent  common- 
wealth, permanently  influenced  the  character  of  Massa- 
chusetts. By  so  doing  it  also  went  far  towards  shaping 
its  destiny.  I  can  now  do  no  more  than  throw  out  a 
few  suggestions,  —  mere  hints,  perhaps,  or  possibly  sur- 
mises,—  which  it  must  be  for  others,  members  of  your 
Society,  to  consider,  giving  them  such  weight  as  may 
properly  be  their  due. 

To  aj^preciate  fully  what  now  here  occurred  during 
that  formative  period  between  1630  and  1644,  we  must 
revert  to  the  initial  fact  that  Weymouth,  or  Wessagus- 
set,  as  it  was  still  called,  was  the  'New  World  centre 
from  which  the  Gorges  movement  had  gone  forth;  or, 
as  the  founder  of  Massachusetts  would  more  probably 
have  expressed  it,  it  was  the  plague  spot  from  which 
disease  might  spread.  In  the  parlance  now  much  in 
vogue  among  the  less  scientific,  that  disease  had  to  be 
stamped  out;  and  the  magistrates  of  the  colony  of 
Massachusetts  Bay  proceeded  to  stamj)  it  out.     They 


WEYMOUTH   THIETY   YEAES   LATER.  133 

did,  also,  a  veiy  thorough  piece  of  stamping-out  work; 
but,  however  thoroughly  it  may  be  done,  stamping-out 
is  at  best  a  rough  and  even  brutal  method  of  reaching 
results;  and,  as  a  rule,  it  is  the  recourse  of  men  of  in- 
tense and  narrow  minds,  —  those  who  never  for  an 
instant  doubt  that  they  are  right.  Whether  priest  and 
inquisitor,  or  minister  and  magistrate, —  fulfilling  their 
mission  on  Jews  in  Spain,  or  Huguenots  in  France,  or 
Lutherans  in  Holland,  or  non- conformists  in  England, 
or  churchmen  in  Massachusetts,  —  they  know  perfectly 
that  they  are  engaged  in  the  Lord's  work;  and,  being 
engaged  in  it,  they  will  not  hold  their  hands.  Why 
should  they?  Are  they  not  God's  chosen  implement? 
]!*^ow  it  is  an  indisputable  fact  that  every  person  on  the 
Massachusetts  shore  connected  with  that  earlier  settle- 
ment, the  old  Gorges  "  planters,"  so-called,  was  soon 
or  late  either  harried  out  of  the  country,  or  made  so 
uncomfortable  in  it  that  he  voluntarily  withdrew,  —  in 
other  words,  went  into  exile.  Morton  of  Mount  Wol- 
laston,  he  of  May-pole  fame,  was  the  first  victim.  Of 
Morton  it  must  be  admitted  little  that  is  good  can  be 
said.  He  was  an  ungodly  roysterer.  His  trading-post 
was  a  public  menace  as  well  as  a  nuisance ;  and,  as  such, 
was  very  properly  abated.  But  there  is  no  sort  of 
reason  to  suppose  that  there  was  in  the  beginning  any 
connection  between  Morton  and  Gorges. 

Morton  came  out  originally  in  June,  1622,  and  ap- 
parently as  a  companion  of  Thomas  Weston's  brother 
Andrew,  on  the  ship  Charity.  He  then  remained  at 
Wessagusset  some  three  or  four  months,  while  the  ves- 
sel which  brought  him  out  continued  on  to  Virginia, 
thence  returning  to  Wessagusset.  In  early  October 
he  again  embarked,  going  back  to  England.  He  thus 
made  acquaintance  with  the  vichiity  of  Weymouth 
Fore-river,  and  the  region  about  Boston  bay,  during 
the  summer  months,  their  period  of  alluring  aspect.     So 


134  WEYMOUTH  THIRTY  YEAES  LATER. 

enamored  was  he  of  the  country  that  he  the  next  year 
piloted  others  back  to  it;  one  more  band  of  pure  ad- 
venturers, they  came  intent  on  exploiting  the  land,  get- 
ting from  it  whatever  of  immediate  value  it  might 
contain.  But  this  second  comjDany,  no  more  than  the 
first,  came  out  under  the  auspices  of  Gorges;  nor  did 
he  look  on  it  with  favor.  It  must  at  least  be  said  in 
favor  of  those  sent  out  by  him  that  they  were  uniformly 
men  of  education  and  substance;  and  they  came  to 
'New  England  in  good  faith,  here  to  establish  them- 
selves. Of  this  class  were  William  Blackstone,  Sam- 
uel Maverick,  David  Thompson  and  Thomas  Wal- 
ford. 

Thomas  Morton,  and  that  strange,  mysterious  enigma 
who  called  himself  "  Sir  Christopher  Gardiner,"  were  of 
an  altogether  different  stamp ;  but,  though  in  the  begin- 
ning Morton  at  least  had  no  connection  with  Gorges, 
subsequently  he  entered  into  close  relations  with  him, 
and  the  inference  is  at  least  reasonable  that  he  was 
arrested,  forced  to  leave  the  country,  and  saw  his  house 
burned  and  his  plantation  across  the  Fore-river,  on 
Mount  Wollaston,  desolated,  quite  as  much  because  of 
the  jealousy  the  new  comers  entertained  towards  the  old 
Gorges  "  planters  "  as  from  any  disapproval  of  himself, 
or  because  of  the  misdeeds  of  his  crew.  On  the  other 
hand.  Sir  Christopher  Gardiner  already,  when  Win- 
throp  came,  was  dwelling  mysteriously  with  his  female 
companion  on  the  cedar-clad  hummock  overlooking  the 
mouth  of  the  ^eponset.  Gardiner  was  unquestionably 
an  emissary  of  Gorges,  probably  his  agent,  here  to 
watch  over  his  interests.  He  was  arrested  and  his  es- 
tablishment, such  as  it  was,  broken  up.  Personally 
held  under  surveillance  for  months,  he  at  length  went 
voluntarily  away.  But,  while  in  Boston,  during  the 
summer  of  1631,  he  seems  to  have  been  treated  with 
courtesy,  and   even   with   a   degree   of  consideration. 


WEYMOUTH    THIRTY   YEARS  LATER,  135 

Finally,  in  1632,  he  went  back  to  England  of  his  own 
choice. 

Next  was  "William  Blackstone,  the  hermit  of  Shaw- 
mut,  the  original  planter  from  Wessagusset,  who  when 
Winthrop  and  his  company  landed  at  Charlestown  in 
June,  1630,  already  had  a  house,  with  a  young  orchard 
about  it,  on  the  west  side  of  Beacon  hill,  looking  up 
the  Charles  towards  Cambridge  and  Brighton.  A  re- 
cluse and  a  scholar,  a  missionar37^  among  the  Indians, 
with  whom  he  lived  in  peaceful  and  even  friendly  rela- 
tions, this  man,  in  every  respect  estimable,  was,  as  Cot- 
ton Mather  tells  us,  "  of  a  particular  humor,  and  he 
would  never  join  himself  to  any  of  our  churches,  giving 
his  reason  for  it,  '  I  came  from  England  because  I  did 
not  like  the  lord-bishops;  but  I  can't  join  with  you,  be- 
cause I  would  not  be  under  the  lord-brethren.' "  These 
words,  I  fancy,  furnish  a  key-note  to  the  Gorges  settle- 
ment. To  those  composing  it,  the  new  environment 
was  unsympathetic;  and,  as  early  as  1633,  Blackstone 
turned  his  face  to  the  wilderness. 

David  Thompson,  also  one  of  the  Gorges  contingent, 
never  was  at  Wessagusset.  According  to  Thomas 
Morton,  a  Scottish  gentleman,  both  a  traveller  and  a 
scholar,  quite  observant  of  the  habits  of  the  Indians, 
he  seems  to  have  moved  down  from  Portsmouth  to 
Massachusetts  bay  about  the  year  1626,  accompanied 
by  his  wife,  and  bringing  with  him  several  servants.  A 
friend  of  Samuel  Maverick's,  he  established  himself 
at  the  mouth  of  the  Keponset,  on  the  island  which 
still  bears  his  name,  and  he  may,  possibly,  have  been  a 
fellow-occupant,  with  Maverick,  of  Winnisimmet.  He 
died  in  1628,  two  years  before  the  coming  of  Win- 
throp. Like  the  other  Gorges  "  planters,"  he  was  a 
man  of  character,  substance  and  education.  As  such, 
he  also  throws  his  ray  of  light  on  the  Wessagusset 
company. 


136  WEYMOUTH    THTRTY   YEARS   LATER. 

But  Samuel  Maverick,  the  first  resident  of  East  Bos- 
ton, was  perhaps,  most  typical  of  all  the  Gorges  follow- 
ing. A  man  of  gentle  birth  and  fair  education,  later 
noted  for  his  good  fellowship  and  hospitality,  he  was 
active  in  social  and  business  life,  altogether  a  useful 
and  public-spirited  citizen.  Distinctly  of  the  Gorges 
connection  and  a  churchman,  he  was  "  strong  for  the 
Lordly  prelaticall  power,"  as  the  Puritanic  speech  went. 
So,  always  conscious  of  the  hostile  feeling  entertained 
towards  him,  at  last,  but  not  until  1648,  —  when  for  a 
quarter  of  a  century  he  had  been  resident  at  l^oddle's 
Island,  as  East  Boston  was  called,  —  he  was  arrested, 
fined  and  imprisoned,  and,  subsequently,  forced  into 
exile.     His  crime  was  non-conformity. 

Unlike  the  others,  Thomas  Walford,  who  I  take  it 
began  his  American  experiences  here  at  Wessagusset  in 
1623,  was  not  an  educated  man  or  of  the  better  class, 
so-called,  in  England;  a  smith  by  trade,  he  was  one  of 
John  Winthrop's  "  common  people,"  those  who  became 
two  centuries  later,  Abraham  Lincoln's  "  plain  people." 
But,  though  a  man  of  the  anvil,  he  was  also  a  church- 
man, an  Episcopalian,  and  he  sturdily  stood  b}'-  his 
creed.  He  had  before  1630  made  a  home  for  himself 
and  his  family  in  Charlestown,  where  he  dwelt  in  rude 
but  secure  independence.  Accustomed  to  his  wilder- 
ness liberty,  and  liking  not  the  ways  of  the  new  comers, 
he  would  not  submit  to  their  severe  rule,  especially  ex- 
ercised in  the  matter  of  Sabbath  observances.  The 
old  pioneer's  Sunday  had,  probal)ly  up  to  that  time, 
partaken  more  of  the  continental  and  Catholic  than  of 
Puritan  characteristics.  So  he  soon  was  in  trouble. 
He  was  arrested,  fined  and  banished.  At  Portsmouth 
he  found  a  refuge  and  a  welcome.  Li  due  time  becom- 
ing a  selectman  of  the  town  and  a  warden  of  the  church 
there,  he  died  in  1660,  much  esteemed  in  the  place  of 
his  exile. 


WEYMOtTTH   THIRTY  YEARS   LATER.  137 

So  much  for  those  followers  and  adherents  of  Sir 
Ferdinando  Gorges  who  had  gone  forth  from  the 
mother  community  here  at  Wessagusset,  or  had,  com- 
ing from  elsewhere,  set  themselves  down  at  her  side. 
Unless,  like  David  Thompson,  they  died  betimes,  one 
and  all,  soon  or  late,  they  were  either  exiled  point- 
blank,  or  harried  out  of  the  land.  ISTot  character,  nor 
occupancy  of  the  soil,  nor  obedience  to  the  law,  were 
of  avail  ;  Ihey  were  not  of  the  Lord's  people  !  So 
much  for  the  out-dwellers. 

We  now  come  back  to  the  original  settlement, —  the 
plague  centre!  After  1625,  and  the  return  to  England 
of  the  Kev.  William  Morell,  —  that  first  clergyman  of 
Weymouth  and  the  potential  bishop  in  jpartihus  of 
New  England,  —  those  who  came  in  his  company,  and 
as  the  companions  of  Capt.  Kobert  Gorges,  separated 
in  search  of  more  favored  sites  for  trade  and  plantation. 
Of  the  savages,  they  seem  to  have  felt  no  apprehension ; 
with  them  they  lived  in  perfect  amity.  This  alone  is 
significant  of  their  character.  As  for  trade,  even  then, 
before  the  advent  of  Winthrop  and  his  company,  Bos- 
ton bay  was  well  known  to  the  fishermen  who  annually 
frequented  the  coast  —  "lone  sails  off  headlands  drear" 
—  and  they  periodically  looked  into  Boston  bay  for 
barter  and  refreshment.  The  Indians  of  the  interior 
could  communicate  with  the  coast  only  by  trail  or  by 
the  water  routes ;  and  of  these  last  there  were  but  four, 
the  Monatiquot,  emptying  into  Boston  bay  by  the  Wey- 
mouth Fore-river,  the  Neponset,  the  Charles  and  the 
Mystic.  Of  these,  so  far  as  the  back  country  was  con- 
cerned, the  Monatiquot  was  least  considerable.  So, 
naturally,  those  of  the  first  comers  who  had  means  and 
servants,  and  who  did  not  fear  solitude,  sought  more 
favorable  sites,  establishing  themselves  at  the  mouth  of 
the  Neponset,  or  on  the  shores  of  the  Charles  or  the 
Mystic.     After  this  dispersion,  the  Wessagusset  com- 


138  WEYMOTTTH  THIRTY  YEARS   LATER. 

miinity  seems  to  have  settled  down  into  the  slow  mo- 
notony of  a  pioneer  existence.  William  JeiFreys  and 
John  Burslam  appear  to  have  been  the  leading  men, 
and  their  names  only,  from  among  those  there  remain- 
ing, have  come  down  to  us.  Ten  years  later  it  was  de- 
scribed by  one  who  visited  it  as  "  a  small  village ;  very 
pleasant  and  healthful,  very  good  ground,  well-timbered, 
and  with  good  store  of  hay  ground." 

But  not  until  1635,  five  years  after  the  occupation  of 
Boston,  and  when  Wessagusset  had  been  twelve  years 
in  existence,  did  the  place  receive  any  considerable,  or, 
at  least,  certain  accretion.  Then,  the  Kev.  Joseph 
Hull,  with  twenty-one  families  from  England,  was  al- 
lowed by  the  Massachusetts-bay  magistrates  here  to 
establish  themselves;  and  We5nuouth  was  at  last  incor- 
porated by  that  name  it  has  ever  since  borne.  But  it 
was  still  referred  to  as  "  a  very  small  town ; "  though  it 
has  been  computed  that  it  then  numbered  from  350  to 
600  souls.  Now  it  was  that  trouble  began.  As  the 
new  Weymouth  wine  fermented  in  that  old  Wessagns- 
set  bottle,  the  scriptural  adage  received  new  illustration. 
But  the  story  of  what  occurred  is  known  only  in  part, — 
from  hints  and  fragments  scattered  hither  and  yon,  and 
which  have  painfully  to  be  pieced  together.  What  is 
known  is,  however,  full  of  suggestion.  With  the  new 
life  came  turmoil;  and,  in  those  times,  the  turmoil  was 
sure  to  be  theological  in  character. 

It  is  safe  to  surmise  that  the  departure  of  the  Rev. 
William  Morell  to  England,  in  1624,  and  the  with- 
drawal of  Blackstone  somewhat  later,  wearing  doubtless 
the  "  old  canonical  gown "  in  which  Winthrop  six  years 
later  found  him  clad,  did  not,  as  things  'then  went,  de- 
prive the  little  Wessagusset  settlement  of  all  spiritual 
nutriment.  Those  there  remaining  doubtless  had,  not 
a  meeting-house,  for  they  were  Episcopalians,  but  a 
church,  such  as  it  was,  in  which  religious  services  were 


WEYMOUTH   THIRTY   YEARS   LATER.  139 

duly  conducted  on  each  Lord's  day,  the  Prayer-book 
and  ritual  being  in  use.  This  had  continued  through  a 
dozen  years,  when  at  last  a  veritable  irruption  set  in. 
Of  what  ensued,  nothing  is  clear;  we  have  to  grope 
our  way  in  the  gra}^  glimmer  of  that  early  dawn.  The 
Rev.  Mr.  Hull,  Ave  are  told,  made  his  advent  in  the  in- 
terests of  Episcopacy ;  but,  if  he  did,  he  either  brought 
with  him,  or  encountered,  a  body  of  dissentients.  That 
the  old  settlers  eyed  the  new-comers  askance  is  more 
than  likely;  but  the  enigma  still  awaits  solution.  All 
we  know  is  that  the  little  settlement,  presumably  at  the 
foot  of  Great  hill,  and  in  and  about  Old  Spain,  was 
rent,  not  in  twain,  but  in  quarters;  and  soon  their  oc- 
cupants were  vociferousl}^  holding  forth  from  no  less 
than  four  rival  pulpits.  At  last,  so  loud  became  the 
tumult  of  tongues,  and  so  grievous  was  the  state  of 
spiritual  aifairs,  that  a  delegation  from  the  church  of 
Boston  made  its  appearance,  —  Heaven  save  the  mark ! 
—  in  the  role  of  peacemakers. 

'Now,  in  1638,  the  church  of  Boston,  after  an  inter- 
lude of  direst  stress  and  storm,  was  at  peace  within 
itself;  but  the  peace  was  that  of  a  sternly  enforced 
conformity,  —  a  peace  somewhat  akin,  in  fact,  to  that 
order  commonly  associated  with  the  name  of  Warsaw. 
The  great  Antinomian  controversy  had  shortly  before 
been  brought  to  a  close.  Silenced  and  overborne  were 
the  wise,  tolerant  and  forbearing  councils  of  Winthrop 
and  Cotton;  a  policy  of  "  thorough  "  had  been  de- 
cided on,  and  proclaimed.  The  conventional  j^riest- 
hood  having  at  last  secured  full  sway,  neither  liberty  of 
thought  nor  freedom  of  speech  was  to  be  tolerated  in 
Massachusetts.  This  revised  order  of  things,  a  new 
gospel  dispensation,  the  1638  delegation  of  the  Boston 
church  doubtless  came  to  propagate  in  Weymouth. 
It  was  the  spiritual,  perhaps  the  inquisitorial,  precursor 
of  the  civil  arm.     A  few  weeks  on\j  before,  the  Bos- 


140  WEYMOIJTH   THIRTY   YEARS   LATER. 

ton  congregation  had  silently  witnessed  some  very 
high-handed  proceedings  in  the  case  of  Mistress  Anne 
Hutchinson;  and  at  "the  Mount,"  as  what  is  now 
Quincy  was  then  designated,  the  Rev.  John  Wheel- 
wright had  been  made  to  realize  the  power  of  the 
magistrate.  The  Rev.  William  Hubbard  gives  the  fol- 
lowing account  of  what  next  occurred  at  Weymouth ; 
and,  though  the  Rev.  William  Hubbard's  General  His- 
tory of  I^ew  England  is  not  now  looked  upon  as  a 
peculiarly  veracious  or  reliable  record,  yet  in  this  case 
it  may  be  accepted  as  the  most  intelligible  and  consecu- 
tive narrative  that  has  come  down  to  us,  in  any  degree 
contemporary  with  what  took  place :  — 

"  The  people  of  this  town  of  Weymouth  had  invited  one  Mr. 
Lenthal,  to  come  to  them,  with  intention  to  call  him  to  be  their 
minister.  This  man,  though  of  good  report  in  England,  coming 
hither  was  found  to  have  drunk  in  some  of  Mrs.  Hutchinson's 
opinions,  as  of  justification  before  faith,  etc.,  and  opposed  the 
custom  of  gathering  of  churches  in  such  a  way  of  mutual  restip- 
ulation,  as  was  then  practised.  From  the  former,  he  was  soon 
taken  off  by  conference  with  Mr.  Cotton,  but  he  stuck  close  to 
the  other,  that  only  baptism  was  the  door  of  entrance  into  the 
visible  church,  etc.,  so  as  the  common  sort  of  people  did  eagerly 
embrace  his  opinion ;  and  some  laboured  to  get  such  a  church 
on  foot,  as  all  baptized  ones  might  communicate  in,  without  anj^ 
further  trial  of  them,  etc.  For  this  end  they  procured  man}*^ 
hands  in  Weymouth,  to  a  blank,  intending  to  have  Mr.  Lenthal's 
advice  to  the  form  of  their  call ;  and  he  likewise  was  very  for- 
ward, to  become  a  minister  to  them  in  such  a  way,  and  did 
openly  maintain  the  cause. 

"  But  the  magistrates  hearing  of  this  disturbance  and  combina- 
tion, thought  it  needful  to  stop  it  betimes,  and  therefore  they 
called  Mr.  Lenthal  and  the  chief  of  the  faction  to  the  next  gen- 
eral court,  in  March ;  where  Mr.  Lenthal,  having  before  con- 
ferred with  some  of  the  magistrates  and  ministers,  and  being 
convinced  of  his  errour  in  judgment,  and  his  sin  in  practice,  to  the 
disturbance  of  their  peace,  etc.,  did  openly  and  freely  retract, 
with  expression  of  much  grief  of  heart  for  his  offence,  and  did 
deliver  his  retractation  in  writing  under  his  hand  in  open  court ; 
whereupon  he  was  enjoined  to  appear  at  the  next  court,  and  in 


WEYMOUTH   THIRTY   YEARS   LATER.  141 

the  meantime  to  make  and  deliver  the  like  recantation  in  some 
publick  assembly  at  Weymouth.  So  the  court  forbore  any 
further  censure  by  fine  or  otherwise,  though  it  was  much  urged 
by  some.  At  the  same  court,  some  of  the  principal  abettors 
were  censured ;  as  one  Smith,  and  one  Silvester,  and  one  Brit- 
ten, who  had  spoken  reproachfully  of  the  answer  which  was 
sent  to  Mr.  Bernard's  book  against  their  church  covenant,  and 
of  some  of  the  ministers  there,  for  which  he  was  severely  pun- 
ished; but  not  taking  warning  he  fell  into  grosser  evil,  whereby 
he  brought  capital  punishment  upon  himself,  not  long  after." 

To  make  this  intelligible,  so  far  as  Weymouth  is  con- 
cerned, we  must  keep  in  mind  a  few  dates  connected 
with  the  great  course  of  world  occurrences.  The  events 
referred  to  in  this  extract  from  Hubbard's  history,  took 
place  during  the  summer  of  1G38.  A  church  tumult  in 
Edinburgh  on  Sunday,  July  23,  1637,  a  year  previous, 
had  brought  mattei's  in  England  to  a  crisis;  and  from 
that  day  Sir  Ferdinando  Gorges  was  wholly  impotent, 
shorn  of  all  influence.  Thenceforth,  he  ceased  to  be  in 
any  degree  an  active  factor  in  Massachusetts  affairs; 
and  his  people  in  'New  England,  no  longer  looking  to 
him,  must,  as  they  best  could,  take  care  of  themselves. 
Already,  six  months  before  the  Edinburgh  tumult,  on 
the  29th  of  January,  1637,  the  Kev.  John  Wheelwright, 
the  favorite  divine  of  Mistress  Hutchinson,  had,  on  a 
day  of  special  fast,  preached  in  Boston  that  occasional 
discourse  which  was  later  made  the  pretext  for  a 
sweeping  political  proscription.  On  the  27th  of  May, 
1637,  the  Massachusetts  charter  election,  the  equivalent 
of  our  annual  State  election,  had  been  held  at  Cam- 
bridge, as  the  result  of  which  young  Sir  Harry  Vane 
had  been  superseded  as  governor  by  Winthrop,  with 
the  harsh  and  uncompromising  Dudley  as  deputy.  It 
was  a  political  as  well  as  a  church  upheaval;  for  Vane 
was,  socially,  the  friend  of  Maverick,  and,  while  in  doc- 
trine he  sympathized  with  Wheelwright,  he  was  the 
cynosure  of  the  Hutchinsonian  cult. 


142  WEYMOUTH   THIRTY  YEARS   LATER. 

The  conservative,  or  clerical,  party  thus  found  itself 
in  comj^lete  political  control;  a  control  cemented  and 
confirmed  by  the  triumphant  conclusion  of  the  Pequot 
w^ar,  and  the  return  of  young  Vane  to  England,  both 
which  events  occurred  in  August.  Every  condition 
now  pointed  to  the  adoption  of  a  policy  of  "  thorough  " 
—  the  stamping-out  process  was  to  begin.  It  did  be- 
gin; and  it  was  carried  out.  John  Wheelwright,  the 
first  minister  of  those  inhabiting  part  of  the  region 
two  years  later  incorporated  as  Braintree,  but  which 
a  century  and  a  half  later  became  Quincy,  was  the 
initial  victim.  He  was  banished,  and  his  supporters 
made  to  see  light,  —  real  orthodox  light!  'Next  came 
Mistress  Hutchinson.  Her  story  has  been  told,  by 
myself  among  others,  in  all  possible  detail.^  I  need 
only  allude  to  it  here.  She,  and  all  those  who  stood 
by  her,  were  "sent  away," — in  other  words,  driven 
into  exile.  This  had  occurred  in  March,  1638.  And 
now,  the  stamping-out  process  being  completed  in 
Boston,  the  party  in  political  control  turned  its  atten- 
tion to  the  out-lying  districts.  Weymouth  was  the 
traditional  plague  centre  of  prelatical  poison,  —  we 
designate  it  Episcopacy,  —  the  seat  of  the  Gorges  set- 
tlement, the  abiding  place  of  Morell,  the  spot  whence 
Blackstone  and  Walford  had  emerged.  No  mercy 
was  to  be  shown  it.  The  last  vestige  of  the  ritual  was 
to  disappear  from  within  the  limits  of  the  colony  of 
Massachusetts-bay.  Thus,  with  Weymouth,  in  1638,  it 
was  much  as  with  some  French  city  in  the  days  of  The 
Terror,  when  a  committee  of  the  Convention  of  '93 
there  put  in  an  appearance.  So  far  as  dissent  and  the 
suspects  were  concerned,  it  meant  the  end. 


1  See  The  Antinomlan  Controversy ;  Three  Episodes  of  Massachusetts 
History,  Part  II,  pp.  363-581  ;  Antiiiomianism  in  the  Colony  of  Massachu- 
setts Bay,  1636-163S ;  Prince  Society  Publications,  1894. 


WEYMOIJTH   THIRTY   YEARS   LATER.  143 

It  is  needless  to  revert  to  colonial  records,  and  again 
to  tell  the  story  of  what  was  then  done.  Mr.  Lenthal 
appears  to  have  been  a  worthy  man  and  a  devout  min- 
ister of  God's  word,  as  he  read  it;  but  he  did  differ 
from  the  powers  that  then  were  on  certain  abstract 
doctrines  of  baptism,  re-ordination  and  justification  by 
faith,  whatever  those  terms  may  have  signified.  They 
have  small  meaning  to  us;  but  then,  they  implied 
heresy:  and  for  heretics  there  was  in  1638,  and  the 
years  ensuing,  no  place  in  Massachusetts.  He  and  his 
followers  were  summarily  dealt  with.  Wise  in  his  day 
and  generation,  Mr.  Lenthal  made  haste  to  see  the  light, 
and  to  express  a  realizing  sense  of  the  error  of  his 
ways.  He  then  took  refuge  in  Rhode  Island.  His  fol- 
lowers were  sternly  disciplined,  re23rimanded,  threat- 
ened, fined,  disfranchised,  and  "  openly  whipt."  The 
insubordination  was  crushed  out;  so  also  were  freedom 
of  speech  and  religious  liberty.  But  order  reigned  in 
Weymouth;  conformity  was  thenceforth  there  com- 
plete. 

The  late  Matthew  Arnold  was  accustomed  vigorously 
to  declare  that  the  great  middle  class  of  England,  the 
kernel  of  the  nation,  was  in  Tudor  times  so  disgusted 
with  the  cowled  and  tonsured  Middle  Ages  that,  during 
the  first  half  of  the  seventeenth  century,  it  "  entered 
the  prison  house  of  Puritanism,  and  had  the  key  turned 
upon  its  spirit  there  for  two  hundred  years."  The  re- 
sult was,  he  further  declared,  "  a  defective  type  of 
religion,  a  narrow  range  of  intellect  and  knowledge,  a 
stunted  sense  of  beauty,  a  low  standard  of  manners." 
Into  the  discussion  which  this  utterance  invites,  I  do 
not  propose  here  to  enter.  I  merely  call  attention  to 
what  all  the  study,  investigation  and  thought  of  thirty 
years  lead  me  to  consider  one  of  the  most  interesting 
and  suggestive  of  the  minor  episodes  of  our  early  Mass- 
achusetts history,  the  final  advance  of  the  puritanical 


144  WEYMOUTH    THIRTY   Y^EARS   LATER. 

glacier  over  the  last  lingering  vestige  of  an  earlier 
attempt  at  a  distinctly  more  cultured  New  England 
civilization.  I  institute  no  comparison;  I  make  no 
criticism.  To  discuss  the  might-have-been  is,  to  my 
mind,  hardly  worth  while.  I  call  attention  only  to  one 
still  unwritten  page  of  our  Massachusetts  history;  a 
page  the  existence  as  well  as  the  possible  meaning  of 
which  had  altogether  escaped  me,  if  indeed  it  had  even 
as  yet  glimmeringly  dawned  upon  me,  when  I  addressed 
you  here  in  Weymouth  in  response  to  your  invitation 
of  thirty  years  ago. 

Thus,  as  I  have  since  come  to  see  it,  the  history  of 
Weymouth,  that  local  history  which  is  the  peculiar 
province  and  charge  of  the  Society  I  to-night  address, 
naturally  divides  itself  into  three  parts  —  first,  the 
Adventurous,  in  which  Thomas  Weston  and  Miles 
Standish,  Squanto  and  Pecksuot,  play  their  parts,  and 
dramatic  enough  those  parts  were:  second,  the  Feudal 
and  Episcopal,  in  which  Sir  Ferdinando  Gorges  and 
Governor  John  Winthrop  hold  the  stage,  in  London 
and  at  Boston,  in  Wessagusset  and  at  Shawmut:  and, 
finally,  part  the  third,  that  Puritanic  period  of  slow 
growth  and  gradual  change  which  lasted  for  two  whole 
centuries,  from  1640  to  1840,  and  which  Matthew  Ar- 
nold has  likened  unto  detention  in  a  prison-house.  My 
earlier  utterances  on  the  earliest  and  second  periods  I 
have  passed  in  review;  and  now,  in  closing,  I  have 
something  to  say  in  criticism  of  the  conclusions  I  then 
reached  as  respects  the  third,  or  final,  period. 

My  foi'mer  treatment  of  this  later  period,  —  that  ex- 
tending from  1640  to  1840,  — I  find  was  of  the  purely 
conventional  character;  a  method  of  treatment,  whether 
by  myself  or  others,  for  which  I  have  since  come  to 
feel  a  very  pronounced  contempt.  Why  is  it,  I  would 
like  to  ask,  that  such  undue  prominence  is  in  anniver- 
sary addresses    always   given   to   times   and   episodes 


WEYMOUTH   THIRTY   YEARS   LATER.  145 

connected  with  wars  and  military  operations?  Take 
for  instance,  yonr  own  case.  Weymouth  now  boasts  a 
corporate  and  continuous  history  of  some  270  years,  — 
as  such  things  go,  a  very  respectable  antiquity;  and, 
during  that  time,  its  women  have  never  seen,  except 
perhaps  a  hundred  and  thirty  years  ago,  or,  just  possi- 
bly, on  one  occasion  nine  years  less  than  a  century  back, 
the  flash  of  a  hostile  gun  or  the  gleam  of  an  enemy's 
flag.  It  is  within  the  bounds  of  possibility  that  a  grand- 
mother, or,  more  probably,  a  great-grandmother,  of 
some  one  among  you  did,  on  those  days  of  April  in 
the  year  1775,  watch  from  some  summit  of  the  town 
the  smoke  of  burning  Charlestown ;  or,  again,  like  Abi- 
gail Adams  from  Penn's  hill  in  Braintree,  your  progeni- 
tors on  the  distafl"  side  may  in  March  of  the  following 
year  have  looked  curiously  on  that  "  largest  fleet  ever 
seen  in  America,"  numbering  upwards  of  one  hundred 
and  seventy  sail,  and  looking  "  like  a  forest,"  as,  with 
Howe's  evacuating  army  on  board,  the  British  ships  laj'^ 
in  the  outer  harbor.  Finally,  on  June  1,  1813,  Wey- 
mouth men  and  women  may  from  the  Great  hill  have 
followed  with  anxious  eyes  the  ill-fated  frigate  Chesa- 
peake move  out  to  her  disastrous  duel  with  the  Shan- 
non. But,  not  since  Miles  Standish  grappled  with  the 
savage  Pecksuot  in  the  wooden  block-house  at  Old 
Spain  on  the  6th  of  April,  1623,  has  an  armed  conflict 
between  hostile  men  occurred  on  Weymouth  soil.  Yet 
in  every  narrative  of  the  town,  accounts  and  details  of 
its  part  in  war,  and  of  its  contributions  thereto,  occupy 
the  place  of  prominence.  In  point  of  fact,  no  war  or 
its  operations,  its  successes  or  reverses,  since  the  death 
of  the  Wampanoag,  King  Philip,  in  1676,  has  exercised 
any  direct  influence  on  Weymouth  history,  or  aifected 
to  any  appreciable  extent  the  town's  development.  In 
the  war  of  the  Rebellion,  as  in  Queen  Anne's  war,  in  the 
French  wars,  and  in  the  war  of  Independence, —  though 


146  WEYMOUTH   THIRTY  YEARS   LATER. 

in  far  less  degree  in  the  first  than  in  any  one  of  the  lat- 
ter,— Weymouth  was  called  on  for  contributions  in  ma- 
terial, in  money  and  in  men ;  but  after  those  struggles, 
as  during  them  and  before,  life  here  moved  on  abso- 
lutely undisturbed  in  the  even  tenor  of  its  way,  —  quite 
unchanged!  The  same  people  lived  in  a  like  manner, 
pursuing  their  wonted  occupations;  generations  were 
born,  went  to  school,  were  married  and  had  offspring, 
grew  old  and  died,  as  their  fathers  and  mothers  had 
done  before  them,  as  their  sons  and  daughters  were  to 
do  after  them.  Of  great,  far  away  events  only  echoes 
reached  the  town ;  and  yet,  what  the  town  then  did  in 
connection  with  those  distant  great  events  becomes  the 
staple  of  its  story.  This  I  submit  is  not  as  it  should 
be;  in  fact  it  is  not  history  at  all. 

Moreover,  I  am  further  disposed  to  contend  that  the 
record  of  Weymouth,  as  of  its  sister  towns  of  Massa- 
chusetts without  exception,  whether  in  the  War  of  In- 
dependence, or,  more  recently,  in  our  Civil  War,  was 
not  in  all  respects  ideal,  or  in  conformity  with  reason, 
experience  and  the  everlasting  fitness  of  things.  N'ever, 
whether  in  Independence-day  orations  or  in  occasional 
addresses,  does  the  declaim er  weary  of  expatiating  on 
the  public  spirit  and  self-sacrifice  then  displayed  and 
evoked;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  read  the  record  as 
set  forth  by  Mr.  Nash  in  the  pages  of  his  history,  or 
registered  in  your  town-books.  Referring  to  the  Rev- 
olutionary war,  and  its  direct  results  on  Weymouth, 
Mr.  Nash  puts  first  among  them  the  excessive  use  of 
intoxicating  liquors  "which  then  became  well-nigh  uni- 
versal." He  speaks  of  this  as  a  public  "  calamity," 
most  far-reaching  in  its  destructive  effects  on  both  the 
minds  and  estates  of  that  generation,  and  of  those  that 
succeeded.  My  own  investigations  have  led  me  to  be- 
lieve that  what  we  term  the  "  drink  habit "  with  our 
Massachusetts  race  dated  from  a  period  long  anterior 


WEYMOUTH   THIRTY  YEARS   LATER.  147 

to  any  Revolutionary  troubles.  In  this  respect  I  think 
Mr.  I^ash  greatly  exaggerates  the  influence  of  array 
life.  Assuredly,  however,  stimulating  the  alcoholic  ap- 
petite cannot  be  accounted  one  of  those  features  of  the 
soul-stirring  time  in  which  posterity  can  take  a  justifi- 
able pride.  But,  in  saying  what  I  have  said,  I  wish  to 
be  explicit.  I  do  not  want  to  be  misunderstood.  For, 
on  this  head,  communities  are,  I  have  found,  sensitive; 
nor,  I  freely  admit,  does  such  sensitiveness  on  their 
part  furnish  any  just  occasion  for  surprise.  On  the 
contrary,  it  is  very  human,  ■ —  altogether  natural. 

^ot  long  ago,  in  Lincoln,  where  I  now  live,  I  ex- 
pressed myself  on  this  subject  to  the  same  effect;  and 
I  afterwards  found  I,  in  so  doing,  had  occasioned  pain, 
as  well  as  surprise.  I  had  seemed  to  speak  depreciat- 
ingly of  the  dead,  and  of  a  period  the  memory  of  which 
was  sacred.  Nothing  could  have  been  further  from 
my  thought.  The  criticism  I  then  made,  and  now 
make  again,  applies  to  all  of  our  Massachusetts,  I  may 
say  our  'New  England,. towns.  Their  records  tell  me 
the  same  story.  Turn,  for  instance,  to  your  own 
town  books  covering  those  heroic  periods,  whether  Rev- 
olutionary or  of  the  Civil  war.  Should  you  do  so,  you 
will  find  in  them  a  wearisome  repetition.  In  the  first 
flush  of  excitement,  volunteers,  in  each  case,  enrolled 
themselves  in  crowds,  they  were  eager  to  get  to  the 
front;  then  came  the  cold  reaction,  and  the  conse- 
quent haggling.  Call  follows  call  for  men  —  and  yet 
more  men ;  for  war  is  insatiable,  —  and  these  calls  are 
grudgingly  responded  to  by  votes  providing  for  the 
payment  of  bounties,  and  by  complicated  plans  for 
the  procurement  of  substitutes.  ISTever  once  in  all 
those  annals  do  you  read  of  a  stern  exaction.  On 
the  contrary,  the  question  always  is  as  to  how  cheap- 
est to  avoid  it.  The  heroic  chord  is  rarely  struck. 
That   there  were   individual    cases,  many  and   touch- 


148  WEYMOUTH   THIRTY   YEARS   LATER. 

ing,  of  self-sacrifice  and  lofty  patriotic  impulse,  I  am 
the  last  to  deny.  Was  I  not  witness  to  them?  Such 
you  do  well  to  commemorate  and  recall;  nor  can  they 
be  held  in  too  green  a  memory.  It  is  not  to  those 
I  refer,  but  to  the  system  under  which  war  was  car- 
ried on;  it  was  weak,  unscientific,  to  the  last  degree 
wasteful  of  blood  and  of  treasure,  —  moreover,  it  was 
cruel  to  those  in  the  field.  Through  it  much  unneces- 
sary agony  was  caused;  and  the  necessary  agony,  at 
best  quite  enough,  was  unduly  prolonged.  Properly 
studied,  your  town  record,  like  the  records  of  all  your 
sister  towns,  teaches  on  this  head  a  lesson  of  utmost 
value.  'No  nation  has  any  right  to  enter  upon  a  war, 
domestic  or  foreign,  unless  it  is  ready  promptly  to  meet 
the  cost  thereof  in  flesh  and  blood,  as  well  as  in  money. 
It  should  not  be  a  question  of  voluntary  enlistment,  or 
of  mercenary  service;  but,  if  a  community  elects  to 
fight,  it  should  put  its  fighting  force  at  the  absolute 
disposal  of  its  government.  Conscription  and  the  draft 
should  be  the  order  of  the  day,  —  the  unmarried  first, 
the  married  next;  and,  for  the  able-bodied,  no  exemp- 
tion. Kever,  in  the  whole  history  of  Massachusetts, 
was  the  ordeal  of  a  war  thus  systematically  met.  On 
the  contrary,  as  studied  in  your  Weymouth  annals,  or 
those  of  your  sister  towns,  after  the  first  fierce  out- 
burst of  ardor  cooled,  it  is  one  long  wearisome  record 
of  services  sold  and  bought. 

What  was  the  result?  The  ranks  of  your  regiments 
were  never  full;  the  morale  of  the  men  at  the  front  suf- 
fered. The  saddest  sights  I  ever  saw  were  those  skele- 
ton battalions  in  the  last  campaign  against  Richmond, 
that  of  1864,  —  those  few  survivors  grouped  about  the 
tattered  colors,  thrust  into  action  yesterday,  decimated 
again  to-day,  doomed  to-morrow:  and  no  recruits  I 
Those  were  the  men  who  went  forward  voluntarily, 
and  at  the  first  call  to  arms.     ]^o  better  material  was 


WEYMOUTH   THIRTY   YEARS   LATER.  149 

ever  mustered;  no  braver  troops  ever  returned  an 
enemy's  fire:  but,  under  the  system  which  always  pre- 
vailed, the  community  from  which  they  came  either  left 
them  to  take  that  fire  to  the  end,  or  sent  forward  to 
associate  with  them  the  bounty-bought  sweepings  of 
your  municipal  gutters,  the  dregs  of  your  civic  cess- 
pools. I  speak  of  that  whereof  I  know.  It  was  not 
right,  nor  was  it  war:  but  it  made  war  costly,  long, 
murderous.     Life  was  simply  flung  away. 

Do  you  ask  what  course  should  have  been  pursued? 
"What  ought  to  have  been  done?  I  will  tell  you.  With 
30,000  men  in  the  field,  the  State  should  have  had 
20,000  always  at  home  in  the  training-camps;  and 
when,  after  such  terrible  struggles  as  those  at  Gettys- 
burg or  in  the  Wilderness,  word  came  that  a  regiment 
had  lost  150  men,  dead  or  disabled,  on  the  notifying 
click  of  the  wire  the  message  should  have  flashed  back 
that  175  men  were  on  the  way  to  make  full  the  de- 
pleted ranks.  The  next  day  175  fresh  men,  bearing  as 
yet  uncalled  numbers  in  the  draft,  should  have  been 
ordered  forthwith  to  report  at  the  depots.  That  is 
business;  that  would  be  war.  In  place  of  it,  you  let 
your  old  regiments  dwindle  to  skeletons,  while  you 
ever  organized  new;  and,  as  the  indecisive  warfare 
dragged  itself  along,  your  towns  competed  with  each 
other  for  bounty-bought  flesh  and  blood.  It  was  quoted 
at  so  much  a  pound. 

This  is  the  side  of  the  record  to  be  studied  in  your 
town-books;  but  it  is  a  side  of  the  record  men  do  not 
like  to  study.  Even  reference  to  it  is  misconstrued. 
It  is  not  popular !  Yet  here  is  the  lesson  to  be  borne 
in  mind,  that  valuable  to  learn.  That  our  young  men 
rushed  eagerly  to  arms  in  the  early  days  of  each  con- 
flict, no  one  denies;  that  they  fought  bi-avely  and  fell 
frequently,  the  names  on  your  monuments  and  the 
flags  in  your  cemeteries  give  proof.     But,  under  your 


150  WEYMOUTH   THIRTY  YEARS   LATER. 

methods  of  carrying  on  warfare,  two  of  thera  died 
where  one  only  need  to  have  died;  two  indecisive 
battles  had  to  be  fought,  where  one  vigorously  fol- 
lowed up  would  have  sufficed.  It  was  so  in  the  Kevol- 
ution;  it  Avas  so  in  the  Civil  War.  That  in  either  case 
it  would  have  been  so  had  the  struggle  been  over  your 
own  hearth-stones,  I  neither  suggest  nor  believe.  Then, 
however,  the  outcome  would  have  dkectly  influenced 
home  existence,  and  Weymouth  development;  not  so  a 
remote  war,  the  echoes  only  of  which  disturbed  the 
monotony  of  your  daily  village  life. 

Thus,  with  Weymouth  as  with  other  Massachusetts 
towns,  the  battles  and  campaigns,  whether  of  1776  or  of 
1864,  and  the  sufferings  and  sacrifices  incident  thereto, 
were  not  momentous  factors  of  fate.  Indeed,  as  I  now 
see  it,  since  1644  there  has  been  but  one  considerable 
event  in  your  history,  one  only  which  marked  an  epoch 
of  far-reaching  change.  That  event  occurred  on  the 
1st  of  January,  1849,  when  the  South  Shore  railroad 
was  opened  to  traffic,  bringing  Weymouth  into  direct 
and  easy  intercourse  .with  the  outer  and  active  world. 
That  inaugurated  for  you  as  a  community  a  revolution 
in  life,  in  occupation,  in  education,  in  religion  and  in 
thought;  —  that  date,  two  hundred  and  fourteen  years 
from  the  incorporation,  marks  the  dividing  line  between 
the  Weymouth  of  the  provincial  period,  and  your  Wey- 
mouth of  to-day.  Already,  in  1804,  nearly  half  a  cen- 
tury earlier,  your  first  post-office  had  been  established; 
quite  an  incident  in  your  history.  What  facts  has  your 
Society  preserved  concerning  it  ?  Late  in  the  eigh- 
teenth century  stage  coaches  put  in  their  appearance. 
They  were  a  factor  of  change ;  what  do  you  now  know 
of  the  influence  they  exerted?  The  daily  newspaper  is 
one  of  the  great  educational  forces  of  modern  times; 
when  did  it  first  find  its  way  generally  to  Weymouth? 
'Noty  I  fancy,  before  1850.     What   great   economical 


WEYMOUTH  THIRTY  YEARS  LATER.  151 

crisis,  affecting  every  phase  of  life,  has  occurred  in  the 
history  of  the  town?  Once,  and  ahiiost  within  the 
memory  of  men  now  Hving,  Weymouth  was  commer- 
cial, as  well  as  agricultural.  It  had  been  so  almost 
from  the  beginning.  It  had  iron-works  in  colonial 
times,  and  later  a  few  small  mills ;  but  when  was  it, 
and  from  what  causes,  that  it  passed  from  an  agricul- 
tural and  a  commercial  to  the  manufacturing  stage? 
Presumably,  the  coming  of  the  railroad  worked  the 
change;  and,  in  working  it,  modified  the  whole  charac- 
ter of  the  town. 

And  here  I  submit,  in  these  industrial,  economical, 
social,  religious  and  educational  phases  is  the  true  field 
of  study  and  accumulation,  to  which  the  local  historical 
society  should  devote  itself.  The  ]3resent  is  always 
familiar  and  commonplace;  it  is  the  past  which  in- 
terests. But  our  present  will  be  the  next  century's 
past;  and  it  is  the  mission  of  societies  like  this  of 
yours  to  make  the  record  of  to-day  fuller,  more  exact 
and  more  intelligible  than  is  that  of  yesterday. 

Of  that  "  yesterday  "  of  yours,  extending  practically 
from  the  2d  of  January,  1644,  the  date  of  the  ordina- 
tion of  the  Rev.  Thomas  Thatcher,  which  closed  the 
primitive  period,  to  the  1st  of  January,  1849,  which 
witnessed  the  opening  of  the  South  Shore  railroad,  — 
of  that  "  yesterday,"  covering  five  years  more  than  two 
centuries,  I  thus  delivered  myself  on  King-oak  hill  in 
my  1874  address: 

"  We  are  always  accustomed  to  regard  the  past  as  a  better  aud 
purer  time  than  the  present ;  there  is  a  vague,  traditional  sim- 
plicity and  innocence  hanging  about  it,  almost  Arcadian  in  char- 
acter. I  can  find  no  ground  on  which  to  base  this  pleasant  fancy. 
Taken  altogether  I  do  not  believe  that  the  morals  of  Weymouth 
or  of  her  sister  towns  were  on  the  average  as  good  in  -the  eigh- 
teenth century  as  in  the  nineteenth.  The  people  were  sterner 
and  graver,  the  law  and  the  magistrate  were  more  severe ;  but 
human  nature  was  the  same,  and  would  have  vent.     There  was, 


152  WEYMOUTH   THIKTY    YEARS   LATER. 

I  am  inclined  to  think,  more  liypocrisy  in  those  days  than  now ; 
but  I  have  seen  nothing  which  lias  led  me  to  believe  that  the 
women  were  more  chaste,  or  that  the  men  were  more  temperate, 
or  that,  in  proportion  to  population,  fewer  or  less  degrading 
crimes  were  perpetrated.  Certainly  the  earlier  generations  were 
as  a  race  not  so  charitable  as  their  descendants,  and  less  of  a 
spirit  of  kindly  Christianity  prevailed  among  them." 

Speaking  now  in  the  light  of  subsequent  investiga- 
tion and  long  study,  I  can  bear  testimony  that  this 
passage  was  written  neither  in  a  depreciatory  spirit, 
nor  in  one  of  pessimistic  exaggeration.  I  have  learned 
more  since  writing  it.  I  acknowledge  I  do  not,  on 
better  acquaintance,  fancy  that  ^'  prison-house  of  Puri- 
tanism "  wherein  our  race  had  "  the  key  turned  upon 
its  si3irit  for  two  hundred  years."  Frankly,  I  see 
truth  in  Matthew  Arnold's  indictment,  —  "a  defective 
type  of  religion,  a  narrow  range  of  intellect  and  knowl- 
edge, a  stunted  sense  of  beauty,  a  low  standard  of 
manners." 

Let  us  for  a  moment,  in  a  realistic  mood,  face  the 
facts  of  that  unlovely  period.  And  first,  of  morals. 
The  early  church  records  of  Weymouth  no  longer  exist; 
and,  perhaps,  it  is  well  for  the  good  names  of  not  a  few 
of  your  families  that  the  fire  of  April  23,  1751,  swept 
away  the  old  Meeting-house,  and  with  it  the  documents 
there  stored.  The  records  of  the  Braintree  church 
remain  in  part;  and,  of  such  as  remain,  I  have  made 
historical  use.  Those  who  care  so  to  do  may  familiarize 
themselves  with  my  conclusion.^  So  far  as  morality  is 
concei'ned,  the  picture  presented  is  not  of  a  character 
which  would  lead  us  to  covet  for  our  sons  and  daugh- 
ters a  recurrence  of  that  past. 


1  See  paper  entitled,  So7ne  Phases  of  Sexual  Morality  and  Church  Dis- 
cipline in  Colonial  New  England,  in  Proceedings  of  Massachusetts  His- 
torical Society,  June,  1891.  (Proceedings,  Second  Series,  vol.  vi,  pp. 
477-516.) 


WEYMOUTH   THTKTY  YEARS   LATER.  15S 

Kext,  temperance :  —  As  respects  the  m-temperance 
of  that  colonial  period,  I  myself  caught  a  youthful 
glimpse  of  its  vanishing  skirts.  Distinctly  do  I  recall 
the  village  tavern,  the  village  bar-room,  —  for  in 
Quincy,  in  my  youth,  bar-room  and  post-office  vv^ere 
one,  —  and,  moreover,  the  village  drunkards.  They 
vv^ere  as  familiar  to  eye  and  tongue  as  the  minister, 
the  squire,  or  the  doctor.  I  see  them  now,  seated  in 
those  wooden  arm-chairs  on  the  tavern  porch,  waiting 
to  see  the  Plymouth  stage  drive  up.  The  drunkard 
reeling  home  in  broad  daylight  is  an  unknown  specta- 
cle now;  then,  he  hardly  excited  passing  notice. 

Take  religion  next :  —  I  submit  in  all  confidence  that 
the  world  has  outgrown  eighteenth  century  theology. 
It  is  a  cast-off  garment;  and  one  never  to  be  resumed. 
Bitter,  narrow,  uncharitable,  intolerant,  an  insult  to 
reason,  the  last  thing  it  preached  was  peace  on  earth 
and  good  will  among  men.  I  have  had  occasion  to  ex- 
amine into  its  utterances  and  to  set  forth  its  tenets. 
Those  curious  on  the  subject  may  there  inform  them- 
selves.^ You  would  not  sit  in  church  to-day,  and  listen 
to  what  was  then  taught,  —  an  angry,  a  revengeful  and 
an  unforgiving  God. 

Schools :  —  Prior  to  1850  the  schools  of  Massachu- 
setts were  archaic,  the  primitive  methods  alone  were  in 
vogue ;  and  not  until  after  that  time  was  any  attention 
at  all  paid  either  to  scientific  instruction,  or  to  the  laws 
of  sanitation.  Charity!  the  care  of  the  insane!  the 
treating  of  the  sick!  In  your  Weymouth  records  for 
the  town  meeting  of  March  17,  1771,  you  will  find  the 
following:  "  Yoted,  to  sell  the  poor  that  are  maintained 
by  the  town  for  this  present  year  at  a  Vendue  to  the 
lowest  bidder."  Do  you  realize  what  that  meant,  and 
who  were  included  in  the  "  poor  that  are  maintained  by 

1  Massachusetts  :  Its  Historians  and  its  History.     Boston,  1893. 


154  WEYMOUTH   THIRTY   YEARS   LATER. 

the  town?"  It  was  the  old-thne  substitute  for  the 
asylum,  the  almshouse  and  the  hospital.  In  those  days 
the  care  of  the  demented  was  formed  out  to  him  or  her 
who  would  assume  it  at  the  lowest  charge  to  the  public. 
Even  as  late  as  1843,  and  in  the  immediate  neighbor- 
hood of  Boston,  naked  maniacs  could  be  seen  confined 
in  cages,  or  unlighted  sheds,  connected  with  the  alms- 
house or  abutting  on  the  public  way.^  Or  take  this 
other  Weymouth  record  of  August  28,  1733,  exactly 
one  year  before  my  ancestor,  Rev.  William  Smith,  was 
ordained  your  minister. 

"  Voted  by  the  Town  to  give  Twenty  pounds  to  any  person 
who  will  take  two  of  the  children  of  the  Widow  Ruth  Harvey 
(that  is)  the  Eldest  Daughter  and  one  of  the  youngest  Daugh- 
ters (a  twin),  and  take  the  care  of  them  until  they  be  eighteen 
years  old." 

Twenty  pounds  in  those  days  was  f66.60  of  the 
money  of  our  days;  and  that  in  old  tenor  bills!  A 
public  inducement  to  baby-farming  is  not  now  held  out. 
And  so  I  might  go  on  to  the  close  of  the  chapter,  did 
time  permit.  But  Macaulay  has  said  it  all  before,  and 
why  now  repeat  in  more  prosaic  terms  the  tale  of 
ancient  wrong?  Rather  let  me  close  with  this  pass- 
age from  his  History : 

"  It  is  now  the  fashion  to  place  the  golden  age  in  times  when 
noblemen  were  destitute  of  comforts  the  want  of  which  would 
be  intolerable  to  a  modern  footman ;  when  farmers  and  shop- 
keepers breakfasted  on  loaves  the  very  sight  of  which  would 
raise  a  riot  in  a  modern  work-house ;  when  to  have  a  clean  shirt 
once  a  week  was  a  privilege  reserved  for  the  higher  class  of 
gentry ;  when  men  died  faster  in  the  purest  country  air  than 
they  now  die  in  the  most  pestilential  lanes  of  our  towns,  and 
when  men  died  faster  in  the  lanes  of  our  towns  than  they  now 
die  on  the  coast  of  Guiana There  is  scarcely  a  page  of 

iSee  the  article  entitled,  Insanity  in  Massachusetts,  by  Dr.  S.  G.  Howe, 
in  North  American  Beview  for  January,  1843,  vol,  56,  pp.  171-191. 


WEYMOUTH    THIRTY   YEARS    LATER.  155 

the  history  or  lighter  literature  of  the  seventeenth  century 
which  does  not  contain  some  proof  that  our  ancestors  were  less 
human  than  their  posterity.  The  discipline  of  work-shops,  of 
schools,  of  private  families,  though  not  more  efficient  than  at 
present,  was  infinitely  harsher.  Masters,  well  born  and  bred, 
were  in  the  habit  of  beating  their  servants.  Pedagogues  knew 
of  no  way  of  imparting  knowledge  but  by  beating  their  pupils. 
Husbands,  of  decent  station,  were  not  afraid  to  beat  their  wives. 

The  more  carefully  we  examine  the  history  of  the  past, 

the  more  reason  shall  we  find  to  dissent  from  those  who  imagine 
that  our  age  has  been  fruitful  of  new  social  evils.  The  truth  is 
that  the  evils  are,  with  scarcely  an  exception,  old.  That  which 
is  new  is  the  intelligence  which  discerns,  and  the  humanity 
which  remedies  them." 


INDEX. 


Abell,  Eobert,  93. 
Aberdeceest,  9. 
Abington,  47. 
Acadia,  120. 

Act  to  prevent  monopoly,  80. 
Adams,  Abigail,  Mrs,  70,  84,  115, 
116,  145. 

Charles  F.,  Jr.,  5,  89,  97,  114. 

Henry,  93. 

John,  84. 

John  Q.,  38,  67. 
Allen,  John,  93. 
Ann,  Cape,  9. 

Antinomian  controversy,  139. 
Applegate,  Thomas,  91. 
Arnold,  79. 

Matthew,  143,  144,  152, 

Back  river,  62. 
Bacon,  6. 

Banbury,  England,  108. 
Bare  Cove,  91. 

Barnard,  Elder  Massachiel,  (First 
non-conformist  minister) ,  35- 
37,  97,  99,  112,  131. 
Barnstable,  100,  102. 

Church,  100,  101. 
Bass  River,  Beverly,  100. 
Bates,  Elder  Edward,  98,  104. 

Joshua,  85. 

Samuel,  98. 
Bayley,  Nathaniel,  77. 
Beacon  Hill,  135. 
Bent,  Rev.  Josiah,  103. 
Bernard,  Grov.,  72. 

Rev.  Mr.,  141. 
Beverly,  100. 
Bicknell,  36. 

Blackstone,  William,  34,  35,  44,  68, 
129,  131,  134,  135,  138,  142. 

Lands  at  Wessagusset,  129. 

One  of  the  Gorges  company, 
131,  134. 


Blancher,  Samuel,  80. 

Boston,  21,  31,  55,  104, 134,  142,  144. 

Bay,  9,  12,  24,  30,  33,  37,  121, 
131,  133,  137. 

Church    sends    delegation    to 
"Weymouth,  139. 

Church  troubles,  139. 

Evacuation  of,  145. 

First  occupied  by  a  Weymouth 
settler,  35,  127,  131. 

Tea-party,  73. 
Bowdoin,  James,  82. 
Bradford,  Gov.,  11,  13,  14,  16,  30. 
Braintree,  45,  75,  79,  142,  145,  152. 
Bridge  in  Wessaguscus,  91. 
Bridgewater,  75. 
Briggs,  Clement,  93. 
Brighton,  135. 
Bristol,  England,  29. 
Britten,  141. 
Britten,  James,  106. 
Burslam,  John,  130,  138. 
Burslem,  43,  44. 

Plantation,  35. 
Bursley,  36,  46,  93. 

Joanna  (Hull),  100. 

John,  100,  111. 
Burslyn,  John,  45. 
Butler's  "Hudibras,"  19-21. 

Calvin,  6. 

Cambridge,  135,  141. 
Castle  Island,  91. 
Chamberlain,  George  W.,  87. 
Chapman,  Maria  W.,  55. 
Chard,  William,  57. 
Charity,  vessel,  11,  13,  133. 
Charles  I,  128. 
Charles  river,  135,  137. 
Charlestown,   104,    130,  135,  136, 

145. 
Chelsea,  130. 
Chesapeake,  frigate,  145. 


158 


INDEX. 


Chicatabot,  38. 

Churches  in  Massachusetts  Bay  in 

1635,  112. 
Clark,  Dr.,  88. 
Concord,  74. 

Continental  array,  enlistments  in, 
77. 

currency,  80,  82. 
Copp,  John,  57. 

Cotton,  Eev,  John,  104,  139,  140. 
Cromwell,  Oliver,  6. 
Cruden's  Concordance,  68,  108. 
Cushing,  Adam,  62. 

E.,  80. 
Cushman,  Robert,  11. 
Cuttyhunk,  125. 

Damariscove  Islands,  8,  125. 
Delfthaven,  Holland,  10. 
Distemper,  throat,  in  Weymouth, 

52. 
Dorchester,  36,  45,  108,  110. 

Council,  90,  98. 
Dover,  102. 
Downing,  Sarah,  49. 
Dudley,  Gov.,  141. 
Duxbury,  23. 

East  Boston,  136. 

Easton,  47. 

Edinburgh  (Scotland)  tumult,  141. 

Eliot,  Rev.  John,  104. 

Ellis,  Rev.  George  E.,  89. 

Episcopacy  in  New  England,  30,  33, 

34,  102,  110,  139,  142. 
Erasmus,  6. 

Ferry  to  Quincy  Point,  56,  91. 
Fictitious  execution  described,  18, 

19. 
Fire  at  Plymouth,  31. 
First  settlement  of  Boston  bay,  126, 

127. 
Fitcher,  Lieut.,  38. 
Fore  river,  13-15,  24,  29,  53,  64,  74, 

76,  121-124,  133,  134,  137. 
Fortune,  vessel,  10. 
French,  36. 

Stephen,  93,  98,  104. 


Fry,  Elizabeth,  92. 

Mary,  92. 

William,  92. 
Furnival's  Inn,  11. 

Galileo,  6. 
Gardner,  Henry,  74. 

Sir  Christopher,  an  emissary 
of  Gorges,  134. 
returns  to  England,  135. 
Gettysburg,  149. 
Gibbon,  60. 
Glover,  John,  93. 
Goold,  Capt.,  75. 

Gorges,  Ferdinando,  29,  30,  128,  130, 
137,  141,  144. 
His  plantation  on  the  Ken- 
nebec, 125. 
John,  34,  35,  44. 
Robert,  29-31,  33,  34,  36-38,  94, 
114,  130,  131,  137. 
Character  of   his  colonists, 

30,  134. 
Date  of  settlement  at  Wes- 

sagusset,  114,  126. 
His  company,  30,  89,  91,  93, 

94,  110,  134. 
His  grant  in  New  England, 

29,  30. 
Returns  to  England,  31. 
Visits  Wessagusset,  29,  94. 
Settlement,  commercial,  131. 
Continuous,  131. 
Ecclesiastical    and    feudal, 

127,  128. 
Its  keynote,  135. 
Its  original  planters  harried 

or  exiled,  133. 
Regarded  as  a  plague  spot, 

132-140. 
Self-perpetuating,  129. 
Gosnold,  Bartholomew,  125. 
Gray,  Haryson,  74. 
Great  hill,  53,  85,  95,  139,  145. 

Pond,  62. 
Greene,  Richard,  11,  14. 
Gustavus  Adolphus,  6. 
Guy  Fawkes'  Day,  31,  66. 

Hampden,  John,  6. 


INDEX. 


159 


Hancock,  John,  82. 

Harris,  Walter,  93. 

Hart,  Edmond,  93. 

Harvey,  Kuth,  65,  154. 

Heber,  Bp.  Keginald,  32. 

Hingham,  75,  86,  91,  100,  102,  110. 

Hobart,  Peter,  87. 

Hobbamock  [Hobomok],  26,  120. 

Holbrook,  Ichabod,  98. 

John,  98. 
Holmes,  Oliver  Wendell,  122. 
Horsford,  E.  N.,  123. 
Hubbard,  102, 

Eev.  William,  140. 
Hull  (town),  37. 
Agnes,  101. 
Benjamin,  100. 
Company,  91,  93,  99,  112. 
No  record  that  it  formed  a 
church,  112,  113. 
Joanna,  100. 

Kev.  Joseph,  36,  45,  67,  86,  88, 
93,  95,  99-101,  103,  105, 
106,  108,  110,  112,  113,  138, 
139. 
Effect  of  his  arrival  at  Wey- 
mouth, 110,  138. 
Claims  a  Weymouth  pulpit, 

110. 
Deputy  to  Gen'l  Court  from 

Hingham,  110. 
Farewell    sermon,   at  Wey- 
mouth, 110. 
Perhaps  an  Episcopal  clergy- 
man, 139. 
Humphrey,  James,  61,  63,  71,  72,  77, 
98,  115,  116. 
Jonas,  98. 
Hunt's  hill,  62. 

Hutchinson,  Mrs.   Anne,    67,    105, 
140-142. 

Indian  depredations,  17. 

Influence  of  Weymouth  settlement 

on  Massachusetts,  132. 
Isle  of  Shoals,  43,  101. 

Jeffers,  John,  44. 

Jeffery,  44. 

Jeffrey,  Thomas,  43. 


Jeffries  [Jeffreys],  William,  34-37, 
43,  44,  93,  138. 
Residence  in  Wessagusset,  35, 
130,  138. 
Jenner,  Eev.  Thomas,  67,  68,   102- 
105,  110,  113. 
Invited  to  Weymouth,  110. 
Johnson,  Edward,  18. 

Keayne,  Eobert,  103,  104. 
Kennebec,  125. 
Kepler,  6. 
King,  36. 

Philip's  War,  28,  49,  129,  145. 
Kingman,  36,  79. 

Henry,  91. 
King-Oak  hill,    5,  53,  54,  85,  117, 
121,  151. 

Lenthall,  Eev.  Eobert,  67,  68,  9.0,  98, 
103-105,  111,  113,  140,  143. 

Character  of,  143. 
Levett,  Christopher,  130. 
Lexington,  74. 
Leyden,  Holland,  9,  27. 
Lincoln,  Abraham,  6,  136. 

Mass.,  147. 
Liquor  nuisance  at  Mt.  Wollaston, 

39. 
London,  England,  144. 
Long,  Eichard,  91. 

Island,  76. 
Longfellow,  Henry  W.,  quoted,  25, 
119,  120. 

His  dealing  with  history,  120- 
123. 
Lothrop,  Eev.  Mr.,  100. 
Loud,  John  J.,  47. 
Lovell,  36. 

Enoch,  61. 

James,  98. 

Eobert,  98. 

Solomon,  74,  78,  80-82,  85. 
Loyalty  of  Weymouth  settlers  to 

Church  of  England,  110. 
Ludden,  93. 
Luther,  Martin,  6. 
Lyford,  Eev.  John,  37. 
Lynn,  106. 


160 


INDEX. 


Macaulay,  154. 
Makepeace,  Thomas,  106. 
Martin,  Ambrose,  106. 
Massasoit,  21. 
Mather,  106. 

Cotton,  102,  135. 
Maverick,  Samuel,  129-131,  134-136, 
141. 
Character  of,  136. 
Mayflower,  7,  10,  126. 
Maypole  at  Merrymount,  38,  44,  84, 
116,  133. 
At  Penobscot  bay,  125. 
Merchant  Adventurers,  London,  9, 

10. 
Blerrymount  settlement  broken  up 
Standish,  41-43. 
May-pole,  44,  116. 
Milton  hill,  55. 

John,  6. 
Monatoquit,  41,  137. 
Monhegan  island,  125. 
Montgomery,  79. 
Moon  head,  76. 

Morell  [Morrell],  Eev.  William,  30- 
34,  95,  96,  109,  112,  130,  131, 
137,  142. 
A    Clergyman    of   the    Estab- 
lished Church,  96,  109,  137. 
Poem  by,  32,  33. 
Returns  to  England,  96,  138. 
Morton,  Thomas,  of  Merrymount, 
12,  17,  21,  36,  38,  40-44,  53, 
84,  94,  116,  130,  133-135. 
Character  of  his  party,  38,  39, 

133. 
His  "New  English   Canaan," 

17-19,  21. 
Landing  of,  11,  12. 
Not   at    first    connected   with 

Gorges,  133. 
Possibly     one     of     Weston's 

Colony,  12,  133. 
Visits  Weymouth,  36,  37. 
Mount  WoUaston,   45,   56,   84,  91, 
94,  134. 
Becomes  Merrymount,  38. 
Location  of,  37,  38. 
Mystic  river,  137. 


Nahawton,  95. 
Narragansett  Fort,  50. 
Nash,  Alexander,  55. 

Captain,  82. 

Gilbert,  87,  118,  126,  131,  132, 
146,  147. 

Jacob,  98. 

James,  98. 
Nateaunt,  95. 

Neponset  river,  130,  134,  135,  137. 
New  Bedford,  125. 
New     English     Canaan,     extracts 
from,  37,  40,  41,  53,  54. 

[See  Morton.] 
Newman,  Rev.  Samuel,  47,  68,  69, 
92,  104,  105, 107, 108,  111,  113. 
Newport,  R.  I.,  106. 
Noddle's  Island,  136. 
North  river,  22. 

Weymouth,  75,  95,  103. 
Northleigh,  England,  101. 
Norton,  Jacob,  51. 
Norumbega,  123. 

Old  North  (First)  Church,  87,  88. 
South  Church,  Boston,  69,  73. 
Spain,    5,  6,    35,  56,   131,  139, 
145. 
Oldham,  John,  34,  35,  37,  44. 

expelled  from  Plymouth,  37. 
Opposition  to  the  ecclesiastical  sys- 
tem of  Plymouth,  109. 
Oxford    University,    England,    101, 

108. 
Oyster  river,  101. 

Paine,  Rev.  Thomas,  69. 

Robert  Treat,  70. 
Parker,  James,  93. 
Pecksuot,  23,  25,  26,  28,  40,  119, 122, 

124,  144,  145. 
Penobscot  bay,  125. 

Expedition,  81. 
Peirce,  John,  11. 
Pequod  war,  46,  47. 
Penn's  hill,  Braintree,  145. 
Phillips  creek,  6,  13,  123. 
Pike,  Rev.  Mr.,  102. 
Plymouth,  5, 16,  17,  21,  23,  29,  31,  39, 
43,  44,  94,  95,  113,  116,  120- 
122,  153. 


INDEX. 


161 


Pool,  36, 

Poole,  Joseph,  49. 
Popham  plantation,  125. 
Porter,  36. 

Portsmouth,  N.  H.,  135,  136. 
Pratt,  Ebenezer,  61. 
John,  49. 

Phineas,  17,  22,  24,  121. 
Escapes  to  Plymouth,  22-24, 
121,  122. 
Prayer-book   used    at    Weymouth, 

139. 
Prince,  Eev.  Thomas,  98,  99,  129, 
131. 
Chronicles,  97,  131. 
Provincetown  harbor,  126. 

Quakers,  101. 

Queen  Ann's  turnpike,  55. 

war,  145. 
Quincy  (town),  142. 

John,  84. 

Point,  56. 

Randall,  John,  98. 

Eobert,  98. 
Randolph,  75. 
Rassdall,  Mr.,  38. 
Rawlins,  Thomas,  93. 
Reade,  William,  111. 
Rehoboth,  47,  68,  92,  107,  108. 
Revere,  Paul,  120. 
Richards,  Thomas,  93. 
Richmond,  Va.,  148. 
Robinson,  John,  27,  28. 
Roxbury,  102,  104. 

Neck,  55. 

Sable,  Cape,  56. 
Saco,  Me.,  103,  105. 
Salem,  100. 

Salisbury,  Surgeon,  11. 
Sanders,  14,  16,  17. 
Sandwich  Bay,  14. 
Savage,  James,  88,  101-103,  118. 
Scituate,  100. 
Seekonk,  107. 
Shakespeare,  6. 
Shannon,  frigate,  145. 
Shaw,  John,  98. 
Joseph,  98. 


Shawmut,  127,  129,  135,  144. 
Shoals,  Isle  of,  9. 
Shrimp,  Capt.  [Standish],  41,  42. 
Silvester,  Eichard,  106,  141. 

[See  Sylvester.] 
Site  of  Weston's  Block-house,  123, 

124. 
Sloan  collection,  123. 
Smith,  141. 

Abigail,  70,  84,  115,  116. 
John,  106. 

Eev.  William,  51-57,  70,  75,  86, 
108,  115,  154. 
Smoking    Flax    Blood-Quenched, 

121. 
South  Shore  Eailroad,  150,  151. 
Southampton,  10. 
Sparrow  (vessel),  8. 
Speedwell  (vessel),  10. 
Squanto,  13,  14,  144. 
St.  Bartholomew  Act,  101. 
St.  Buryan's,  Cornwall,  101. 
St.  Mary's  Hall,  Oxford  (England), 

101. 
Standish,  Miles,  13,  23-28,  39,  41- 
43,  50,  118-124,  144,  145. 
His  account  of  visit  to  Merry- 
mount,  42,  43. 
Longfellow's  version  of,  119, 

120. 
Eelieves  Wessagusset,    24-26, 

119-123. 
Sir  Hugh,  119. 
Thurston  de,  119. 
Stoughton,  Israel,  103. 
Stow,  74. 
Swan  (vessel),  11, 13, 14,  17,  23,  24, 

27,  29,  31. 
Sylvester,  Eichard,  66,  93. 

[See  Silvester.] 
Symmes,  Eev.  Zechariah,  104. 

Taunton  Eiver,  62. 
Thacher,  Eev.  Peter,  69,  113. 

Eev.  Thomas,  69,  108,  151. 
Thompson,    David,    130,    134,    135, 
137. 

Character  of,  135. 

Never  at  Wessagusset,  135. 
Thompson's  Island,  130. 


162 


INDEX. 


Three  Episodes  of  Massachusetts 

History,  121,  126. 
Tirrel,  John,  78. 
Torrey,  John,  61. 
Jonathan,  98. 
Joseph,  61. 
Paul,  verses  by,  51. 
Kev.  Samuel,  69,  98. 
William,  93,  98. 
Troubles  from  paper  currency,  78- 

80. 
Trumbull,  J.  Hammond,  104,  106. 
Tufts,  Cotton,  47,  52,  55,  64,  71,  74, 
75,  78,  85. 

Upham,  36. 

John,  46,  111. 

Vane,  Sir  Harry,  141,  142. 
Vinson,  John,  62,  98. 

Lieut.,  82. 
Virginia  massacre,  21. 

Walford,  Thomas,  130,  134,  142. 

Character  of,  136. 
Wampetuc,  95. 
Warren,  Joseph,  "  Solemn  League 

and  Covenant,"  73. 
Waters,  Henry,  123. 
Wattawamat.     [See  Wituwamat.] 
Weaver,  Clement,  93. 
Webacowett,  Jonas,  95. 
Webb,  Christopher,  103. 
Weld,  Rev.  John,  104. 
Wessagusset  [WessaguscusJ  (early 
name  of  Weymouth),  12,  44, 
86,  91,  94,  109. 
Described    in    Wood's    N.   E. 

Prospect,  44. 
Distress  in  w^inter,  14-16. 
Double  name  of,  35. 
History    indistinct  from  1623 

to  1628,  37. 
Importance  of  its  early  history, 

118. 
Morton's  colony  destroyed,  27. 
Name  changed  to  Weymouth. 

100,  111,  116. 
Original  site  of,  123. 
[See  Weymouth.] 


Weston,  Andrew,  133. 

Thomas,  8-11,  89,  124,  125,  130, 
133,  144. 

Abandons  Plymouth  colony, 
10. 

At  Wessagusset,  29,  133. 

Character  of,  10. 

Dies  in  Bristol,  Eng.,  29. 

Influence  of,  in  settlements 
at  Plymouth  and  Wey- 
mouth, 9. 

Plans  for  settlement,  8, 9, 125. 

Eeturns  to  England,  133. 

Trials  of  his  colony,  14-17, 21. 
Weymouth,  Action  on  Stamp  Act, 

71,  72. 
Action  on  tax  on  tea,  72,  73. 
Allovred  a  deputy  to  the  Gen'l 

Court,  45,  111. 
Arrival  of  Weston's   party  8; 

their  character,  11,  12. 
Attack  on,  anticipated  in  the 

Revolution,  74-76. 
Attitude    at    opening   of    the 

Revolution,  73-76. 
Birth  record,  93. 
Bridge,  91. 

Centre  of  the   Gorges  move- 
ment, 132. 
Changes  in,  88. 

Chooses  three  deputies,  45,  111. 
Church  troubles,  102-111,  138. 
Comparative  size  of,  94. 
Clergymen,  66-70,  95-113. 
Council,  1637,  102,  103,  111. 
Council,  1639,  103,  104,  106. 
Date  of  settlement,  7,  90,  91, 

114. 
Deaths  in  1718,  98. 
Deserters     from     Continental 

army  paid,  80. 
Distance  from  Boston,  55. 
Episodes  in  its  early  history, 

118-123,  144. 
European  contemporaries  with 

its  settlement,  6. 
Expenses,  58,  82-84. 
Extinguishes    Indian    title   in 

1642,  94. 
Families  in  1644,  107. 


INDEX. 


163 


Weymouth,  Facts  as  to  early  settle- 
ment, 94. 
Ferry,  56,  91. 
First  twenty  years,  87. 
Fisheries,  62. 
Grant  for  tanyard,  61. 
Great  snow-storms  in,  64. 
Holidays  observed,  66. 
In  the  Civil  War,  76,  147,  148. 
Intemperance  in,  147,  153. 
Jealousy  of,  95. 
Made  a  plantation,  45,  100. 
Meeting-house  burned,  50,  51, 

152. 
Morals  of,  65,  152. 
Number  of  families  in,  before 

1644,  93. 
Old  North   Church,  organiza- 
tion of,  87,  88. 
Origin  of  name,  90. 
Originally  called  Wessagusset, 

116. 
Pisciculture  in,  62. 
Plague    centre    of    prelatical 

poison,  142. 
Population  of,  1635,  93. 
Post  Office  established,  150. 
Probable  date  of   settlement, 

114. 
Records,   extracts  from,    etc., 

48-50,  54,  57-66,  77,  78,  81, 

82,  90,  92,  153,  154. 
Eeligion  in,  153. 
Eival  claimants  to  pastorate, 

111,  112. 
Rules  concerning  fires,  58. 
Sad  accident  at,  66. 
Schools,  57,  82,  83,  153. 
School-master,  57. 
Settlement  antedates  Boston, 

127. 
Sickness  in,  52,  63. 
Sketch  of,  by  Cotton  Tufts,  47, 

52,  55,  64. 
Soldiers  and  the  Lord's  day,  66. 
Soldiers  in  Canada  campaign, 

78-79. 
Soldiers  in  Civil  War,  79,  148- 

151. 


Weymouth,  Soldiers  in  Continental 
service,  77-81. 
Snow-storm  of  1717,  64. 
Theory  of  pastoral  succession, 

113. 
Town  bounty  to  soldiers,  79- 

83. 
Town  debt,  77,  83. 
Town  meetings,  60,  61,  76. 
Treatment  of   the  poor,   153, 

154. 
Weston's  influence  in,  9,  10. 
Weymouth,  England,  36,  90,  91,  93, 

97,  101,  131. 
Weymouth  River,  13. 
Wheelwright,  Rev.  John,  140-142. 
White,  Asa,  77. 
Dr.,  62. 
James,  77,  78. 
Samuel,  49. 
Whitman,  Capt.,  77,  82. 
Whitman's  Pond,  85. 
Whitmarsh,  Ezra,  61, 
Whittier,  John  G.,  118. 
Wilson,  Rev.  John,  44,  103,  104. 
Winnisimmet,  130,  135. 
Winslow,  Edward,  11,  17. 
Winthrop,  Gov.   John,  34,  36,  87, 
91,  93,  102,  106,  109,  127,  128, 
135-139,  141,  144. 
His  map  of  Massachusetts,  123. 
Visits  Wessagusset  and    Ply- 
mouth, 34,  44,  91,  94,  134. 
Winthrop    settlement,    contrasted 
with  that    of    Gorges,   127, 
128. 
Theological    and    democratic, 
127. 
Wituwamat,  25-28,  119,  120,  122. 
Wollaston,  Capt.,  37,  38. 

Arrival  of    his    company,    11, 

12. 
Settlement  at  Mt.  Wollaston, 

38. 
Settlement  broken  up,  41-43. 

Yarmouth,  100,  101. 
York,  Maine,  101. 


APPENDIX. 


The  Number  of  Acres  in  each  Per- 
son's Lot  in  1663. 


44  Bates. 

Bayley. 

Berge. 

Bicknell. 

Blake. 

Bolter. 
3  Briggs. 
35  Burrell. 

Burg. 

Butterworth. 

Byram. 

Charde. 

Comer. 
5  Cook. 

Down. 

Drake. 
10  Dyer. 
8  Ford. 
28  French. 

Fry. 

Oilman. 

Guppie. 

Harding. 

Hart. 

Holbrook. 

Humphrey. 
34  Hunt. 
2  King. 
2  Kingman. 
5  Leach. 
13  Lovell. 

Luddon. 


27  Nash. 
Newbury. 

2  Osborne. 
Otis. 

1  Parker. 

6  Phillips. 
Pitty. 

18  Pool. 

7  Porter. 
68  Pratt. 

Priest. 
11  Eandall. 

3  Reed. 
Reynolds. 

22  Richards. 
Roe. 

2  Rogers, 
36  Shaw. 

Staple. 
Streame. 
22  Smith. 
Snooke. 
2  Taylor. 
Thacher. 

8  Thompson. 
25  Torrey. 

21  Vining. 
30  White. 
5  Whitman. 
1  Whitmarsh. 
Warrens. 
Woren. 


Total,  64. 


Poll  List  of  1774. 


1  Arnold. 
Ayrs. 
Badlam. 

7  Bayley. 

44  Bates. 
6  Beals. 

21  Bicknell. 

6  Binney. 
32  Blanchard. 
35  Burrell. 

4  Canterbury. 

1  Colson. 

3  Copeland. 
50  Cushing. 
11  Derby. 

10  Dyer. 
Eager. 

8  Ford. 

28  French. 
Goold. 

1  Gurney. 

29  Holbrook. 
19  Hollis. 

Hovey. 
8  Humphrey. 
34  Hunt. 
Jeffers. 

4  Jones. 
13  Joy. 

2  Kingman. 

45  Loud. 
13  Lovell. 


27  Nash. 

20  Orcutt. 

6  Phillips. 
Pitty. 

18  Pool. 

7  Porter. 
68  Pratt. 
25  Reed. 

8  Rice. 

22  Richards. 
Ripley. 

2  Rogers. 
36  Shaw. 
22  Smith. 
25  Thayer. 
61  Tirrell. 
25  Torrey. 

1  Trufant. 
Tufts. 

3  Turner. 

21  Vining. 

3  Vinson. 
1  Wade. 

1  Ward. 

1  Waterman. 

2  Webb. 

2  Weston. 
30  White. 
5  Whitman. 
1  Whitmarsh. 

4  Williams. 


Total,  63. 


